(Updated throughout, adds comments to Reuters)
by Mimosa Spencer and Vincent Daheron
Antoine Arnault declared on Wednesday that the new Paris FC project, with which the Arnault family holding company, Agache, entered into exclusive negotiations in order to acquire a majority stake, was not to “throw money at lost funds” and would be based on training.
“We are going to take things step by step,” the man who will be Agache’s future representative on the board of directors of Paris FC told Reuters, while expressing his “dream” of “one day playing against Liverpool in the Ligue des champions… and, who knows, maybe even beat them.”
Agache, the holding company of French billionaire Bernard Arnault, owner of LVMH, announced in October that it had launched exclusive negotiations to become a majority shareholder of Paris FC, with the support of the Austrian company Red Bull, which manages several Football clubs in the world – including RB Leipzig, a regular in the Champions League.
“We know what we can do but we also know what we can’t do,” Antoine Arnault said earlier in the day during a press conference presenting the project. “We have a certain skill in terms of organization, management, but none in terms of managing a football team. Red Bull has very strong skill in terms of football.”
The person who is also responsible for LVMH's communications and image declared that the objective was to “grow and improve, but by doing things gradually (…), without skipping steps”.
“We are not in the habit of wasting our money. We will try to do things with, initially, a substantial investment,” he added, without specifying the amount.
Several media have mentioned an investment of at least 100 million euros from the Arnault family, with the possibility of increasing the budget to 200 million if Paris FC reaches Ligue 1. “What we see in the press n “is not very far from reality,” said Antoine Arnault.
Agache will hold 52% at the time of the “closing”, imminent according to the current president of the PFC, Pierre Ferracci, then will have a large majority within three years (around 80%).
“AN EXTREMELY LONG TIME”
Antoine Arnault wishes to rely on the training of young players rather than immediately recruiting renowned players.
“With the help of Red Bull, it will be at the heart of our strategy to build, I hope, the best training center in France, in Paris and in the Paris area,” he said. “The Arnault family does not see a horizon of two or three years. We are here for an extremely long time.”
Founded in 1969, Paris FC is currently at the top of the Ligue 2 standings after 13 days and hopes to move up to Ligue 1, a championship in which it has not played since the 1978-79 season.
“We are not here to change everything and turn the table over,” assured Antoine Arnault. “It’s a big Ligue 2 club and we’re going to try to make it a very good Ligue 1 club.”
Passionate about football and particularly Paris Saint-Germain, Antoine Arnault assured that he did not want to “force or constrain” the houses of the LVMH group to be partners of Paris FC. “I have set myself a unilateral Chinese wall. I will not ask the group's houses to become sponsors of Paris FC,” he said at a press conference.
He also told Reuters that it was a project carried out with his brothers and sister. Together, they had to convince their father Bernard, who is not a big football fan, he added.
“I think he saw with his businessman's eye the potential for valorization around the Paris FC brand,” he said of Bernard Arnault.
Furthermore, while Paris FC introduced free men's (Ligue 2) and women's (Arkema Première Ligue, the first division) matches last year, Antoine Arnault admitted to thinking about maintaining this system.
“The free offer worked very well and we are going to keep it at least until the end of the season,” he declared at a press conference. “In Ligue 1, it's a little more delicate. The objective is to have part of the stand which will remain free, another at very affordable prices, and we will try to be more corrosive for hospitality and for partners.”
(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer and Vincent Daheron, editing by Blandine Hénault and Jean Terzian)
