PSG supremo Al-Khelaifi targets new glories away from the Parc des Princes
Ligue 1 pacesetters Paris Saint-Germain entertain mid-table Toulouse at the Parc des Princes on Friday night less than a day after the club unveiled a €300 million state-of-the-art training centre just outside Paris and top boss Nasser al-Khelaifi admitted the hunt was underway for a new home ground.
“I really like the Parc, everyone does,” al-Khelaifi told French broadcaster RMC during a lavish gala for the inauguration of the PSG Campus in Poissy, 30km to the north-west of the Parc des Princes.
“If I listen to my heart, we’re not leaving the Parc,” the 51-year-old added. “But all the big teams in Europe have stadiums with 80,000, 90,000 seats.
“We need that too, otherwise we’re dead.”
Time
The Parc des Princes, which is owned by Paris city council, was built in 1897 in the form of a velodrome and revamped in 1972.
The 48,000-seat capacity stadium has housed PSG since 1974 and also doubled up as the venue for France international rugby and football matches until the construction of the Stade de France for the 1998 football World Cup.
Since Qatar Sports Investment group bought PSG in 2011, it has spent billions of euros bringing in some of the best players and coaches to the club.
But city councillors have refused to sell the venue, claiming the ground forms part of Paris’s sporting and cultural heritage.
Sale
“A sale is not desirable, because that would be a decision with no turning back,” said Pierre Rabadan, the deputy mayor for sports. “That’s why we have to rule out the sale of the park. We don’t want to sell off the city’s legacy.”
“The club needs to build a new stadium as quickly as possible,” al-Khelaifi added.
Read more on RFI English
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