Emmanuel Grégoire, recently elected mayor of Paris, who notably announced his intention to reopen discussions with Paris Saint-Germain regarding the sale of the Parc des Princes (rather than the club relocating to Poissy or Massy), provided an update on this matter on Monday on France Info radio. He discussed, in particular, what is planned for the proceeds from the sale.
Grégoire: “We should put the money to much more useful places.”
An announcement regarding the Parc des Princes?
I want to resume discussions very quickly, and I will bring this matter before the Paris City Council at the extraordinary meeting I will convene in mid-April. I want a mandate, because it’s not the mayor’s office that decides this, but the Paris City Council.
Secondly, we have a deep emotional attachment to our club, and we want it to stay in Paris. Therefore, we want to create the conditions necessary for it to remain. I said I am in favor of the sale, also because I believe it’s not public money that should be used to pay for a professional football stadium. I believe that money should be invested in many other, more useful areas, and I said that the entire proceeds from the sale to PSG would be allocated to the construction and maintenance of new sports facilities, as well as the creation of green spaces.
Grégoire: “We want to conclude the discussions by the end of the summer at the latest.”
I also said that I wanted to present the team with an award for their Champions League victory. And finally, regarding the timeline, we agreed with the PSG shareholder that we want to conclude the discussions by the end of the summer at the latest. We need to set ambitious deadlines. I hope to be able to “finalize” the deal with them, as they say, by the summer.
