"Building a leading team at national and European level over time."

Such was the wish of the investment fund Qatar Sports Investments (QSI), expressed by the new president of the club Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, during the acquisition in June 2012 of Paris Handball, renamed in the wake of Paris SG as the football section of which QSI was already a shareholder.

Ten years later, QSI has succeeded in its bet, with millions of euros, to build a hegemonic team in France and regularly present in the last four of the C1, failing to win it.

Mikkel Hansen, Nedim Remili, Benoît Kounkoud, Vincent Gérard, Yann Genty... All left PSG this summer, sometimes even strengthening European competition.

Remili and Kounkoud, for example, left to try a new adventure in Kielce, finalist of the last edition and winner in 2016, when Mikkel Hansen returned to the country, in Aalborg, rising star of Danish handball.

"A Different Setup"

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Admittedly, PSG extended Dutch center half Luc Steins, voted best player in the French championship for the past two seasons, Polish pivot Kamil Syprzak, and retained Nikola Karabatic, but no star has joined the squad. off-season.

The club instead bet on "young players with high potential", according to captain Luka Karabatic: Yoann Gibelin (22) and Hungarian international Dominik Mathé (23), who nevertheless arrived with a serious knee injury. , leaving Latvian Dainis Kristopans alone at right-back for much of the season.

"We lost major players, concedes Luka Karabatic. It's a slightly different configuration, but we have a technical staff which is of quality, which does a very good job."

"The Final Four (of the C1) is always a goal for us, it will depend on our ability to develop the team, to be regular, efficient, and to avoid injuries", he assures.

The many departures coincide with a drop of 2.5 million euros in the budget between the 2020-2021 season and the one just starting.

The sign of a growing disinterest of Qatari owners?

"These are just numbers, sweeps the general manager of PSG Thierry Omeyer. Behind, the objectives are always high. I do not fixate on the budget."

“Advantageous taxation” for competition

With a budget of EUR 16.36 million, the club from the capital still has approximately twice as many resources as its two main competitors at national level, Montpellier and Nantes.

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Largely sufficient in the French championship, but not in the Champions League, where some big clubs also have "advantageous taxation", according to Omeyer.

"We can't fight fiscally with Kielce, Hungarian clubs, etc. It's something that penalizes French clubs."

The capital club inherited the lesser of the two groups, with the Hungarians of Veszprém as their first contender, also in search of their first Champions League title after years of unsuccessful attempts.

It is also with a trip to Hungary that PSG will begin their European campaign on Thursday (6:45 p.m.).

Conversely, Nantes, the other French club engaged in C1 this season, will have to rub shoulders with Kielce, Kiel, Aalborg and Barça, double defending champion.

To get out of Group B, "there are two teams to put behind us", confides Nantes coach Grégory Cojean: "Elverum and Celje. And we will try to win points against the big teams."

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Starting with Kielce, where the Nantes residents will travel on Wednesday (8:45 p.m.), to find Remili and Kounkoud, already far from Paris.

© 2022 AFP