Paris Saint-Germain FC - last updated on 3 January 2008
(Courtesy of Johnny Beaufays)
Club name: Paris Saint-Germain Football Club
Foundation: August 1970
City: Paris
Colours: Navy blue, red and white
Website: www.psg.fr
Honours:
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup - 1 (1996)
UEFA Intertoto Cup - 1 (2001)
Ligue 1 - 2 (1986, 1994)
Ligue 2 - 1 (1971)
Trophée des Champions - 2 (1995, 1998)
Coupe de France - 7 (1982, 1983,1993, 1995, 1998, 2004, 2006)
Coupe de la Ligue - 2 (1995, 1998)
Coupe Gambardella - 1 (1991)
A bit of history:
The club was founded in August 1970 by the merger of Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain. Gathering funds from nearly 20,000 subscribers, the creation of Paris FC marked the reappearance of a major club in Paris after the demise of R.C. Paris, Red Star and Stade Français (among others). The union of F.C. Paris and Stade Saint-Germain was motivated by the need to find players, structures, and a place in a higher division, and it resulted in the creation of Paris Saint-Germain Football Club. The new club played in the Nationale (second) division for the 1970-71 season. The club won the division and was promoted to the top division in their first season. After finishing 16th in the 1971-72 season and under pressure from the Paris City Council to remove the reference to Saint-Germain, the club split in May. The professional part of the club joined C.A. Montreuil and remained in the top division as Paris FC, the amateur part of the club continued in the third division as amateur side Paris Saint-Germain. PSG was promoted to D2 in 1972-73, as champions following the disqualification of US Le Petit-Quevilly. The following season the club returned to professional status and finished second in the league, winning promotion to the top division in a play-off with Valenciennes. In a ironic twist for PSG supporters, Paris FC was relegated in that season and PSG would henceforth always play at the newly rebuilt Parc des Princes, once the ground of Paris FC.
The club has remained in the top division since 1974), after going professional 2 years earlier. Jean-Pierre Dogliani, Mustapha Dahleb and François M'Pelé were notable players at this time. Staff-wise, Velibor Vasović and Jean-Michel Larqué are seen as notable. Daniel Hechter was responsible for the design of the “historical” club shirt. On November 4th 1975, the current training center, the Camp des Loges was inaugurated. Pierre Alonzo took the direction of it. The Tournoi de Paris also finds life again in 1975, until its dissapereance in 1993.
The presidency of Daniel Hechter ended following the scandal of double ticketing of the Parc des Princes in January 1978.
Francis Borelli takes over for 13 seasons. Under his control, the PSG gains its first major trophies: two Coupe de France (1982, 1983) and the championship of France 1985-86.
The most notable players of this period are Carlos Bianchi, Dominique Baratelli, Luis Fernandez, Ivica Surjak, Dominique Bathenay and Dominique Rocheteau then Safet Susic, Joël Bats, and Gabriel Calderon. George Peyroche, Gérard Houllier, Lucien Leduc and Tomislav Ivic were the principal trainers of the Borelli era.
In 1991, Borelli is forced to pass the relay to Canal+ which invests in the PSG in order to compete with Olympique de Marseille, starting the intense rivalry. After three years, the club started some wonderful years winning the French Championship in 1994 - after Marseille's title was revoked for match-fixing. The club's fortunes in Europe were impressive, winning the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996, also reaching the following year’s final only to lose to Barcelona FC.
During the Canal + period, PSG was very effective in local cups as well, winning the Coupe de France in 1993, 1995, 1998, 2004, and 2006. In addition, PSG won two Coupe de la Ligue (1995 and 1998).
Several players were the foundations of the PSG success, such as Bernard Lama, Alain Roche, Ricardo Gomes, Valdo, David Ginola, George Weah, Raí, Youri Djorkaeff, and coaches such as Artur Jorge and Luis Fernandez.
This prize list could have been expanded by the title of champion of France in 1993 following the OM’s descend to second division. The League allotted the title to PSG but Canal + refused it. The TV chain feared the reactions of its subscribers in Province, and Canal+ even threatened to withdraw from football completely if the title was allocated to PSG. The “higher interests of Canal+” were before those of the PSG. The League and the Federation accepted and the title of 1993 remained “not allotted”. Canal + even refused PSG to dispute the UEFA Champions League after the exclusion of OM by the UEFA.
The takeover of the club by Canal+ is gradually carried out. Starting in 1991, Canal+ started gaining shares of the club, but it wasn’t until 1997 that the TV channel started to own the majority of the shares. After June 2001, Canal+ obtained another 34% of the shares, and in August 2005 they obtained the other 2% held by Alain Cayzac, making the TV Channel PSG’s only shareholder.
In 1998, after seven years with Michel Denisot, Charles Biétry takes over but resigns after six months leaving the club heavily involved in debt, while losing important deals such as the sale of Nicolas Anelka to Arsenal FC, which proceeded to sell the player a year later to Real Madrid for 33.2M€. Since then, PSG is trying to find balance and stability.
In 2000, the PSG was one of the 14 founder members of G14. During this period, the return of Luis Fernandez did not improve the sporting situation in spite of the talent of players such as Ronaldinho, however the debt of the club had been multiplied by two.
The combinaton of Francis Graille-Vahid Halilhodzic is called with to rescue of the club, who is going through a 40% expenditure reduction. In spite of this problem, the PSG had a beautiful 2003-2004 season, winning the Coupe de France and reaching a second place on Ligue 1 which opens the doors of UEFA Champions League 2004-05.
The season 2004-2005 is more difficult. The club was quickly eliminated from the UEFA Champions League 2004-05 and was having a sluggish performance in the championship creating a crisis with the supporters, who were against the policy followed by Canal+. Vahid Halilhodzic is fired on February 8 2005 and replaced by Laurent Fournier, former player of the club. President Francis Graille is also fired by Canal+ on May 2 2005. Pierre Blayau succeeds to him. The project of Francis Graille which consisted in repurchasing shares of the club did not impress Canal+, which reaffirm its desire to remain in charged of PSG, contrary to all the rumors announcing progressive disengagement of the majority shareholder.
In the December 27th, 2005 Laurent Fournier is fired by Pierre Blayau, even though PSG is only one point of the second place of Ligue 1. Guy Lacombe is named to replace it after Paul Le Guen refused the post.
April 11, 2006 Canal + announces the sale of the club to the American investment company (Colony Capital), the French investment company (Butler Capital Partners) and the American investment bank (Morgan Stanley). Canal + yields the club for an amount which is not communicated while taking responsibility for its important debt contracted by the club under its direction. This sale becomes effective June 20 2006. After that, Alain Cayzac replace Pierre Blayau.
Club crests: (roll on the crest to get more informations)
Paris Saint-Germain FC
