On the verge of changing hands and being sold to the Arnault family, Paris FC will enter a new dimension. Guest of After Foot this Thursday on RMC, the current president of the club Pierre Ferracci developed the high ambitions of future bosses.
Half an hour of questions and answers. Without kicking into touch. President and majority shareholder of Paris FC since 2012, Pierre Ferracci answered questions from l’After Foot this Thursday on RMC, and discussed all the burning issues around his club.
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A few hours earlier, the Arnault family, via its holding company Agache, had released a press release to confirm its entry “into exclusive negotiations with a view to acquiring a majority stake in Paris FC”, a further step towards the takeover of what should become the second major club in the capital with PSG. The Arnault family should initially hold 55% of the club and Red Bull 15%. Ferracci, 72, would keep 30% of the capital before selling his shares in 2027 to the Arnault family, which would then own 85% of the Parisian club.
“The Arnault family does not dream of immediately winning the Champions League”
But for what ambitions? For this season, the objective is clear: to move up to Ligue 1. “The investors will take their time but have great ambitions. They want to climb to L1. We are getting closer. We have a rather praised squad, a competent staff around Stéphane Gilli, we have the means to move up,” said Ferracci, while his team is in first place in Ligue 2 after eight days ahead of a battalion of competitors including Lorient, Dunkirk, Metz and Annecy. With the conquest of Ligue 1 in the short term and the top of the L1 table in the medium term, the idea will one day be to compete for European places. To the point of hoping to compete with PSG?
“Our capital will be national and French. This is not the case for Red Star, and PSG is held by Qatar. I see a real derby in the long term when we are in L1. (…) We always say that Paris is the best basin in the world with that of Sao Paulo, we must exploit these riches to the fullest. I dream of one day having a team whose backbone is from Ile-de-France and will bring its skills (…) The Arnault family does not dream. not to compete with PSG and immediately win the Champions League,” Ferracci argued. Not to skip ahead is the credo of this ambitious but reasoned Paris FC, which already made an impression last summer by attracting former Marseillais Maxime Lopez to everyone’s surprise.
“I think the long-term objective is to be European,” said Ferracci. “It can start with the Europa League and end with the Champions League. No doubt one day they will want to win it. They want to take the steps. (…) OM have invested a lot of money and are not not European this season. We must fully exploit the training potential of the Ile-de-France region, then open up.”
