‘Defamation’: Paris claps back at football boss over racism claim

A deputy mayor in the French capital has accused Paris Saint-Germain boss Nasser al-Khelaifi of defamation after the Qatari football tycoon suggested the city’s refusal to sell PSG a football stadium was rooted in racism.

Al-Khelaifi wants to buy the Parc des Princes stadium, which the Qatari-owned French football club is currently renting from the city of Paris, but has faced opposition from some city officials, who are refusing to sell the venue to a private company.

The heated negotiations are at an impasse and have descended into a war of words.

In an interview with French daily Le Parisien on Tuesday, al-Khelaifi said “some [city officials] say ‘let’s resume the talks;’ others say ‘we’re not selling to Qatar.'”

“Is that because we’re Arabs … ? Is it legal to say that?” the PSG president wondered.

Asked if he felt the situation bordered on racism, al-Khelaifi answered: “I think so. A judge should perhaps look into it.”

Deputy Mayor David Belliard of the Greens, who had previously said he would oppose “any sale” of the stadium, responded quickly in a statement to the same newspaper later on Tuesday.

“Calling me a racist amounts to defamation, and doesn’t rise to the level of what’s at stake in this important debate,” Belliard said, adding he was against selling the Parc des Princes “to private interests, whatever their nationality.”

“I believe it should remain a common property and therefore a municipal asset,” the official said.

PSG has been trying to increase capacity at the Parc des Princes, which currently seats around 48,000 people, to match its global ambitions ever since the club was taken over by Qatar in 2011.

Since then the club has become the flagship of the Gulf state’s strategy of sports diplomacy, as well as one of the most powerful institutions in the world of football, spending hundreds of millions of euros to buy some of the sport’s best players.

Talks between the club and city hall initially concerned expanding the stadium to a capacity of 60,000 seats.

PSG then reportedly expressed interest in buying the stadium outright in 2015. But it didn’t follow through, as the sum demanded by the city of Paris, then below €100 million, was considered too high by the club, which had already spent €75 million renovating the facility, according to Le Parisien.

The issue resurfaced in November 2022, when Paris city officials said they had turned down a €40-million bid from PSG to purchase the venue — an offer Deputy Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire deemed “not serious.“

Since then, negotiations have been at a standstill — but PSG isn’t backing down.

“They don’t want to sell [the stadium], and we need to buy it,” al-Khelaifi said in his Tuesday interview.

“All the other big clubs have their own stadiums. If you want to be a very big club, you have to respect certain conditions.”