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[parcdesprinces]

PSG = Pastore, Sirigu & Gameiro



Back in the early mid nineties I enjoyed watching some French football. As a Rangers fan I hated Marseille but I liked seeing PSG and then Monaco. PSG were an exciting but also strong with top players like Youri Djorkaeff, Alain Roche, George Weah, Bernard Lama, Paul Le Guen and the very gifted Brazilian Rai. Monaco then came on the scene complete with young stars like Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet as well as those two the has a Scot in john Collins and had players like Enzo Scifo, Sylvain Legwinski, Fabien Barthez and Sonny Anderson who I admired from a far. Then my French appreciation declined when Lyon dominated in Ligue 1.

Well now in 2011 as the new season gets ready to start, my interest has been rekindled. PSG have been bought over by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) who are owned by Crowned Prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Now I will concentrate on this new Parisian revolution in this article but I should mention that this exciting 2011/12 Ligue 1 season will not involve Monaco as they were relegated at the end of last term… Things certainly have change in France.



Now Qatari influence has been creeping into world football for a few years now The Qatar Foundation became the first sponsors of European champions Barcelona in a deal worth a staggering $200m , they tried to buy Manchester United, Their TV network Al-Jazeera has bought up a lot of TV rights over the world, then there was their successful bid to host the 2022 World Cup and the recent fiasco with FIFA which led to Qatari official Mohammed Bin Hammam being banished from the far from squeaky clean world football governing body.

So its no surprise they have now acquired a European club but has the decision to buy PSG been a surprise?

Well in some ways yes and in others no.

First why yes?

Well the Qatari people love to make the biggest impact so people may have thought that the would go into the Spanish, Italian or English markets with Everton being obvious targets. These leagues give ultimate exposure and have been dominating European football for almost twenty years.

So why no?

Well by purchasing Paris Saint-Germain and by running them properly they will expect European/Champions League qualification each and every season. In France there are less financial competitors to worry about. Ligue 1 has always been a very good league and a place were stars hone their skills before becoming world class talents. Then there is Paris itself, one of the worlds top top cities yet their team have never totally dominated European football. So that is the challenge make a team from the beautiful French capital beat the likes of Barca, Man Utd, the Milan sides and Real Madrid on a regular basis. The city and money can attract top players as it has before but this time they will be able to keep them too!



So what can PSG fans expect now?

Well the new owners have not been slow in getting their new project up on its feet. After helping the club to a top four finish last season former player Antoine Kombouare has kept his job as First Team Coach. I hope he remains there as he is a talented boss who gets the players playing for him. I remember Antoine joining Aberdeen for a few years towards the end of his career and even then he was coaching the players around him and organising the defence in a very structured fashion. He has passion for his job and he seems like a deep thinker. But his new employers have brought in another former PSG player to help him out in the form of former AC and Inter manager Leonardo. An appointment which will surely have Kombouare sleeping with one eye open and he will only truly be satisfied that his job is not already the Brazilians when he gets through a bad spell of results without being sacked.



Leo has came in as Sporting Director, a job he preformed at AC Milan for a few years and for me a job that is more suited to forty-one year old. His links in Brazil and Italy are extremely strong and his ability to spot a player are fantastic just look at the job he did in bringing in Kaka, Alexandre Pato and Thiago Silva to AC. All three counted Leo as a reason for going to Milan. He also becomes very friendly with the players which is maybe why he wasn’t totally successful as a coach as you need that distance, although his tactics could be called into question too. As a Sporting Director he can spot which players to bring in, become their confidant and not interfere with first team affairs and by doing that he be a huge success in Paris. The fact he speaks at least six languages helps immensely as well.

Look out for the French giants now being linked with Neymar, Ganso and Sao Paulo’s Lucas in the future as the QSI will hope Leonardo can persuade some of his countries next generation superstars to join him in Paris.



Leo has already used his links to great affect with Jeremy Menez, Mohamed Sissoko and Salvatore Sirigu all coming in from Serie A. They have also added established Ligue 1 stars with French Internationalists Kevin Gameiro and Blaise Matuidi joining from Lorient and St-Etienne. With those players joining the likes of Mamadou Sakho, Peguy Luyindula, Mathieu Bodmer, Sylvain Armand and Nene then surely PSG were always going to challenge current champions Lille, Lyon and Marseille for next seasons championship.

But the QSI group wanted to make a major statement, they wanted to purchase that marquee signing that would make the whole of European football sit up and take notice. So Menez is talented, Sissoko will strengthen the midfield and Sirgu is a keeper with a huge future but Leo and the Qatari owners needed to make a splash that would get everyone talking.

They took a look around the globe and decided to do battle with Roman Abramovich’s Chelsea for the signature of Argentine International Javier Pastore. They were already dealing with Palermo supremo Maurizio Zamparini over the purchase of Salvatore Sirigu and came up with a £39m deal to be paid in three instalments which the Italian club accepted. It was reported that a similar bid from the London side was also accepted and it was a choice between the two for the twenty-two year old. If true then Paris offered a more suitable package to Javier as it looks like the attacking midfielder will be paraded as a PSG player this week. The deal created the desired affect as all of the football world are now talking about Paris Saint-Germain and their new squad.

So why would Pastore sign for PSG ahead of Chelsea?

Well as cities there is not a lot to choose between London and Paris. Money would be very similar. As projects PSG’s is new and looks exciting with owners up for the challenge of making their side one of the best in Europe, while Chelsea’s look a bit stop start with a lack of direction. At PSG Pastore comes in as the top player and like Rai back in the 90s he can expect most of the attacks to come through him, at the Blues he would not be the main man and would be forever battling with the likes of Frank Lampard, John Terry, Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres for the headlines. Even when negotiating with Palermo, you had a sense that Chelsea really wanted Spurs midfield maestro Luka Modric and maybe Javier got that sense and decided to make the move to France. Plus there is that man Leonardo who Pastore would have met and probably fell in love with!

Their is a new Arab revolution in European football with PSG, Man City and Malaga all splashing their oil laden cash but maybe the purchase of the Parisian club has been the most astute as they were already a big club in their country, have a European history and are probably the most likely to win their league first.

The Ligue 1 championship will be the main target for this maiden season for the mega-rich new owners but a top three finish will get PSG a Champions League spot which is the minimum they want this campaign. But the main aim is to challenge for the top Euro honours which they hope to be doing in within five years.

http://www.thefootyblog.net/

[11G]

Capital gains: well-connected PSG's revival is good for French football


Stuart Coleman, Editor of The Football Diaries, on the benefits of Paris St-Germain's rejuvenation

As Nicolas Sarkozy took his place in the Élysée Palace in June 2007, le président's team of choice had just finished their Ligue Un campaign in a dismal 15th. Paris Saint-Germain, one of French football's great clubs and the capital's only top-flight representatives, equalled their lowest-ever league finish after a season spent flirting with relegation.
That season had been a tumultuous one on and off the pitch, with former playing hero Paul Le Guen replacing the ineffective Guy Lacombe as manager in January 2007 and the shocking death of a PSG fan, shot by police after anti-Semitic harassment of an Israeli Hapoel Tel Aviv fan, in November 2006.

The fortunes of the capital city's biggest sporting asset had reached their nadir. As Le Guen's erstwhile employers Lyon swept all before them at the top of the table, PSG had to look on from the league's lower reaches, struggling without an all-important league title since 1994. By 2007, discord, violence and disappointment had established themselves as the club's defining features.

Fast forward four years and things are very different in the Western reaches of Paris, where the Parc des Princes rises like a brutalist monument to the beautiful game, standing watch over the ever-rumbling périphérique, the endless motorway marking the border between the city and the suburbs.

President Sarkozy, a genuine PSG fan, could afford a moment to forget his country’s economic problems, and let slip a satisfied smile. The premier has reportedly played a major part in not only the revitalisation of the French top flight, but also the dramatic changes at his beloved Paris Saint-Germain.

In November 2010, French football was looking with increasing fear towards a bleak future. The clubs had been handsomely remunerated by a generous TV package since 2008, courtesy of a bidding war between major broadcasters Orange and Canal Plus. With the rights for the 2012-2016 contract soon to be arranged, Orange announced they would not be taking part, apparently leaving Canal Plus to a monopoly and an enviably strong position from which to negotiate.

Having operated under a rights deal that paid better than the equivalent agreements in Spain and Germany, both of which are better-supported and more profitable leagues, the powers that be in French football were worried about the effects of vastly reduced rights money. Ligue Un's relatively low turnouts and a lack of commercialism could render contingencies incapable of bridging the impending financial gap: many thought that even bigger clubs like PSG could fold.

Enter Sarkozy. The French president played a major role in convincing Qatar's Crown Prince Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani to purchase a controlling share in PSG – and to persuade Qatari broadcaster al-Jazeera to step in and effectively save French football with a considerable TV rights deal.

Qatar Sports Investment, which was set up by the Crown Prince in 2005, was created in order to promote the oil-rich nation’s interests abroad, particularly in Europe. (As well as the takeover of PSG, QSI announced a record-breaking shirt sponsorship deal with global football darlings Barcelona.) The chairman of QSI and friend of the Crown Prince, Nasser al-Khelaifi, also happens to be the chairman of al-Jazeera sport, thus completing, for the Qataris, Sarkozy, French football and PSG, a mutually satisfying circle of influence.
It has been suggested that Sarkozy asked Michel Platini to support Qatar’s bid for the 2018 World Cup, in order to oil the wheels of the rights deal and the takeover of PSG. Neither side admits to any such arrangement and while the UEFA chief firmly denies the accusation, but it is a matter of record that his influential vote ultimately did go to the unlikely Middle Eastern bid winners.

Whether the financial dealings behind the scenes at PSG were Machiavellian scheming or simply shrewd business, the news of PSG’s takeover by wealthy Qataris sent shockwaves through French football and was the beginning of a new chapter in the club’s turbulent history. The new owners brought a renewed optimism and self-confidence to the club’s beleaguered supporters, who have spent much of the last decade wallowing in self-pity.

QSI’s financial muscle allowed the club to compete with the richest of Europe’s elite group; the signing of the highly-rated and widely-coveted Javier Pastore from Palermo for just under €40m in August was both a coup for the club and an overt announcement of PSG’s ambition. Indeed, Paris spent a wholly conspicuous €89m last summer; more than every other club in Europe, with the exception of England’s own Middle Eastern nouveau riche, Manchester City.
Opposing fans have felt a curious mixture of envy and disdain, the culture of buying success being considered vulgar and less valid than ‘earned’ victory – the same arguments that Chelsea and Manchester City had to contend with upon their own mega-rich takeovers. Despite the ostensibly obvious similarities, many PSG fans felt that the major investments taking place under QSI’s ownership were merely helping Paris back towards where they belonged – the top.

The merits of this line of thinking are up for debate, and it's worth remembering that last season PSG managed a creditable fourth place prior to QSI’s takeover. But no matter the route via which competitiveness has been reached, the club the French love to hate are, beyond any doubt, back.The dominance of Lyon in the opening decade of the century, winning seven titles in a row from 2001/02 to 2007/08, was as interminably tedious as it was hugely impressive. A league dominated by one force is only genuinely positive for that club; the lack of competitiveness harms the image of the league abroad and bores neutrals and opposing fans alike.

Thankfully, the last three seasons have seen three different league winners, Lille, Marseille and Bordeaux having all claimed the Ligue Un crown. To add a little extra spice to the mixture, the poseurs from Paris are back and are more than ready to stake their own claim to French football’s greatest prize. PSG are the second best-supported club in France, after their arch-rivals, Marseille. The QSI takeover brings them back to the top table and provides Ligue Un with a continental contender with the stadium, profile and cash to attract quality players, such as Pastore, and a global fan base to the French top flight.

Brazilian Leonardo, who has taken up a Sporting Director role at PSG, has insisted that the playing squad will be improved by focusing on young French talent, which so often in the past has been drawn in by the far-reaching tentacles of the Premier League. The former Milan and Inter manager has also appeased those fans keen to explore the tantalising possibilities of the club’s newfound wealth, with the promise of the occasional ‘marquee’ signing like Pastore thrown in for good measure. Moneyed they may be, but the club is well aware of the negatives associated with a specious Galacticos policy. Maintaining a French core to the team and club will please fans and if the temptation to fill the team with stars is resisted, the French national team, which is still rebuilding its reputation after the World Cup debacle, should also see demonstrable benefit.

The claimed dedication to young French talent seems so far not to be just bluster, with the promising Blaise Matuidi, Jérémy Ménez and the outstanding Kevin Gameiro joining the likes of club captain Mamadou Sahko at the Parc des Princes in the summer. With a rejuvenated squad, Paris have made an impressive start to 2011/12; Les Parisiens will enter the new year second in the table, kept off the top spot solely by an inferior goal difference to surprise contenders, Montpellier. Having just missed out on a second round spot in the Europa League, PSG’s ambition for the season is now the single-minded pursuit of that elusive Championnat.

Not all will be pleased at the kind of massive instant investment PSG are currently undergoing, but to see the club where the likes of Ronaldinho, Raí and Weah have shone, one of Europe’s true glamour sides, revitalised, hungry and back amongst the leading pack at the top of Ligue Un is a satisfying sight for any fan of French football.

So vive Paris, vive la France et vive la révolution!

http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/thefrenchconn...h-football.aspx