SOCCER
PSG position themselves for a new stadium: Stade de France bid ready
The French side are set to enter the bidding for the Stade de France after negotiations for the Parc des Princes stalled.
Despite being knocked out of the Champions League at the hands of Bayern Munich, PSG are not changing their expansionist ways that are thought to open the door to a new era in the club over the next years. As well as being about to unveil a new training complex in Yvelines, Poissy, the club are in line to bid for the Stade de France, the home of both the French football and rugby national teams.
The French state, that owns the rights to the stadium built in to host the 1998 France World Cup, launched a request for bids starting in July 2025. The current licence expires in no more than a couple of years, which makes it imperative that an offer is made once the right of the state to use the stadium expires. Both a request for bids and a pre-sale procedure are options at this moment in time.
FIFA are also interested (?!)
On top of PSG wanting the stadium, FIFA are also interested. It would be, in the case that the pre-sale agreement is completed, the first stadium in the world that the football organisation would own. Emmanuel Macron, President of France, would not be against the idea and the negotiations with Infantino and company began at the start of March.
A lot of money for a lot of seats
The sporting directors of the French team, meanwhile, have in mind the idea of acquiring the stadium for €600 million, which holds 80,000 people, a near 50% increase on the Parc de Princes (47,000). They want a stadium that fits the standards PSG hold against themselves. The priority, however, is to remain in their current stadium, although the difficulties of increasing the capacity to 58,000, given the rigidity of the Town Council in the negotiations, above all from Anne Hidalgo, oblige Al Khelaïfi to seek alternatives.
The group ‘Legends’ were assigned by PSG to look for a new stadium for the club. Although they at first took the option of the Stade de France off the table, the difficulties with finding a new home and the impossibilities regarding the potential full ownership of the Parc des Princes has forced the club’s hand. Let the bidding war commence.
