The Qatari owners of PSG have threatened to leave the historic grounds of the club if it is not ceded to them, a condition according to them for carrying out modernization and expansion work to the tune of 500 million euros.

"It is a firm and definitive position. It is an exceptional heritage of Parisians", adds the elected socialist while her team said so far to be open to dialogue, even if the sale was not her "priority option".

The former PS presidential candidate did not mention the possibility of a departure from the club.

"We must support PSG in its desire and its need for renovation, for increasing capacity, for modernizing the Park", even if "part of the stadium is on the ring road, so we cannot dig", says -she.

Inaugurated first in 1897 then in 1972 with its new architecture, the former velodrome, whose capacity is now fixed at 48,000 places, has been home to the Parisian club since 1974. The current emphyteutic lease, which entered into force in 2014, short for thirty years.

The Parc des Princes in Paris on October 10, 2022 © FRANCK FIFE / AFP/Archives

At the end of November, the president of PSG Nasser Al-Khelaïfi had dug up the hatchet on this subject.

"They are pressuring us to leave," the Qatari leader had dropped in a vitriolic interview against the municipality, recalling having "invested 80 million euros" - before Euro 2016 - in a stadium which "is not ours".

The club did make a buyout offer, but "very low, very far from the estimate we had", said sports assistant Pierre Rabadan at the time.

According to a source close to the Parisian club, the evaluation carried out by the town planning services was "ten times higher than what we had as a price".

According to first deputy Emmanuel Grégoire quoted by Le Parisien, the amount offered by PSG was 40 million euros.

"It's cheaper than Paredes", the Argentine midfielder "bought 50 million euros", he had mocked, drawing the wrath of Mr. Al-Khelaïfi.

Since 2011, the club of planetary stars Leo Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar has won eight French championships and six French Cups, in particular.

But he failed to conquer the Champions League, his main objective, failing in the final in 2020.

© 2023 AFP