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7 months ago
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Yesterday, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi was followed closely by journalists from the famous show El Chiringuito de Jugonés. Present in the capital where the UEFA Congress was held, they did everything to question the president of Paris Saint-Germain about Kylian Mbappé. The Parisian boss’ response was concise and did not teach anything new. On the other hand, NAK was more talkative to the French media when it came to discussing the famous Parc des Princes issue. It’s no secret that PSG wants to become the owner of the Parisian venue and carry out expansion work allowing it to increase the capacity of the stadium to 60,000 or 70,000 seats. But Ile-de-France leaders have been up against the firmness of Paris town hall for months.
NAK is decided
This week again, Anne Hidalgo confirmed this. “I say it again (…) once and for all: there will be no sale of the Parc des Princes.” A message perfectly heard by Al-Khelaïfi who responded yesterday. “It’s too easy to say now that the stadium is no longer for sale. We know what we want, we wasted years trying to buy the Park. It’s over now. We want to move from the Park.” An announcement that had the effect of a bomb. And if we could think of a new bout of pressure to make Paris City Hall bend, that is clearly not the case. According to The Team*, NAK is determined to follow through with its idea. According to him, Anne Hidalgo lied to him and played a double game, assuring him privately for 8 years that the sale of the Parc des Princes was possible.
But she never really moved the issue forward. An attitude which was not to the taste of the Parisian president, who visibly felt betrayed and used for political reasons. He believes that his club is being pushed towards the exit. But this is not the case. The City of Paris wants PSG to continue playing in its legendary stadium. Silent yesterday, the town hall finally emerged from the silence in the columns of Parisian. Deputy mayor of Paris in charge of sport, Pierre Rabadan responded to the leader of PSG. “We want PSG to stay at the Parc des Princes. Several solutions are possible for this, without going through the sale of the stadium. We have been calling for a resumption of dialogue for two years now.” But behind the scenes, the story is different.
Paris town hall is getting annoyed
An elected official, who preferred to remain anonymous, declared: “When Nasser says they lost eight years, it’s false,” fumes an elected official. We worked with them for almost three years on expanding the stadium’s capacity. We were in favor of it. But at that point, there was no question of selling. The club’s leaders only told us from 2022 that they wanted to buy the stadium. But the announced price, 38 million euros, did not live up to the expectations of the Paris town hall, which wanted “at least one more zero.” Still in the columns of Le Parisien, another elected official blurted out: “There are rules to respect, and the president of PSG does not seem to understand them. The conditions are not met for a sale of the Parc des Princes, given the composition of the Council. And even in the event of a change in 2026, it is not certain that the situation will be different. »
Yesterday, after his media release, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, who is ready to go to the end, organized a meeting within the club in order to discuss this hot issue and accelerate on other avenues. But this does not really delight the supporters, who want to continue to support their club at the Parc des Princes. The club is hopeful of convincing its fans, as a source close to NAK reminds Le Parisien. “Remember Euro Disney. When it was built, everyone laughed that it was too far away to attract people. Today, the debate no longer has any reason to exist”before adding “he is building the club for the next 100 years, not for six-year political terms like mayor.” If a final twist cannot be ruled out, Al-Khelaïfi is determined to change stadiums, he who is not ready to wait for the possible arrival of a new mayor in 2026.
