Paris should become a real football city, one with a real rivalry, with a derby, as befits such a large European city. Not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow.
France’s richest family, the Arnaults, one of the wealthiest families in the world with an estimated fortune of 165 billion euros, bought control of Paris FC, currently leaders of Ligue 2, the second division. The sports newspaper The Teamwho first reported this news, writes of a “revolution.” This should be taken seriously, the French understand the definition of revolution. If Paris FC, founded in 1969 and always at best second-tier, were soon promoted to Ligue 1, the Qatari PSG would finally have an opponent in the city again.
The flirtatious thing about it: The Arnaults attach great importance to the fact that it is not their company, the luxury group Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH), a portfolio of 75 brands, that takes over the club, but rather them as a family. As if it were a sentimental affair. The Team quotes a source from the entourage: “They want to give something back to the society that made their rise possible.”
Well, this is probably an attempt to appease those fans who still see Paris FC as a working-class club. The glamor of Louis Vuitton just fits in with it. But do today’s fans still care? And isn’t it completely different in this case? In France, England and Italy, so many clubs are now owned by golf owners, investors from America and international funds that the interest of a national company is rather a nice exception. Despite sequins.
The Arnaults, as we have now learned, are taking a famous advisor on board for their new adventure in football: Red Bull will own 15 percent of the FC when the takeover operation is completed in 2027. In France the saying goes: “Red Bull and their ‘Monsieur Football’”. This refers to Jürgen Klopp, the beverage company’s new head of football. The Arnaults will pump 200 million into the club, the newspaper also writes The Parisianwhich belongs to the family. Paris FC should establish itself at the top very quickly and then qualify for the Champions League as soon as possible, that is the goal.
Next year they want to move to the Stade Jean-Bouin in the west, right next to the Prinzenpark, where PSG plays
The Arnaults’ interest in sports is not new. They have long sponsored the world’s largest sailing competition, the America’s Cup. Last summer, the Louis Vuitton logo hung over every venue for the Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris, and even the medals were designed in-house. The family recently joined Formula 1 with a billion euros. The patriarch, Bernard Arnault, 75, is a passionate tennis fan, first of all of Roger Federer, now of Carlos Alcaraz, both of whom are brand ambassadors for his company alongside many other sports greats, such as Lionel Messi, the swimmer Léon Marchand, the basketball player Victor Wembanyama, and, of course , Kylian Mbappé: The former PSG star advertises Dior and the extremely expensive suitcases from Rimowa.
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Jürgen Klopp will be “Head of Global Soccer” at Red Bull from January 2025. Traditionalists are horrified, but what sounds like a cultural break has plausible reasons from Klopp’s point of view. The commitment is a coup for the group.
The Arnaults also liked Paris FC because it has Paris in its name and the Eiffel Tower in the club’s emblem, like PSG. This is crucial for marketing and merchandising. The driving forces behind this new commitment are two of Bernard Arnault’s five children: sons Antoine and Frédéric. It is said of Antoine Arnault that he often sits in the Parc des Princes at PSG games, in the VIP sector, with his own children. So a very rich man is now treating himself to a personal gimmick: the dream of the derby.
You have to go back a long way in history, to the 1980s, when PSG competed against Racing Paris for a while, both of which were first class at the time. Paris has never been a big football city. On the one hand, this is because many Parisians intramurosthe population in the old center, always had a rather blasé approach to football: the city has so much more to offer for this lively pastime than 22 people competing for a ball. And where football would be really big, in the outskirts Paris, in the banlieues with their almost inexhaustible reservoirs of talent, the clubs never had the money they needed to become big.
Paris FC plays its home games at the Stade Charléty, an arena on the southern edge of the city, 13th arrondissement, 20,000 seats. It was renovated 30 years ago, but the lousy lawn is often a nuisance. Next year they want to move to the Stade Jean-Bouin, in the west, 16th arrondissement. It is right next to the Prinzenpark. That would be a neighborhood with an announcement.
