Football: Government could sell Stade de France to stem losses
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The Stade de France will be the main stadium for the 2024 Paris Games, after which it could be put up for sale.
PHOTO: AFP
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PARIS – The Stade de France could be up for sale after the 2024 Olympics, with Paris Saint-Germain and Fifa already linked to the money-losing stadium, sources close to the French Minister of Sports said on Friday.
The sources said the state will soon call for applications to either buy or manage the stadium from the summer of 2025.
The Stade de France was completed in 1995 for the 1998 football World Cup. It will host its second Rugby World Cup final later in 2023 and will be the main stadium for the 2024 Paris Games.
The stadium is owned by the French state but has always been operated by a consortium made up of the two giants of the French construction industry Vinci, with a two-thirds share, and Bouygues, with the rest, who built the stadium.
The contract, which ends in July 2025, has caused endless legal disputes between the state and the operators, and the government wants to find a less-costly solution.
Yet it is a difficult task to find the right formula for managing an over 80,000-seat venue that needs a facelift. It is also a challenge to calculate how much it might realistically fetch. Estimates put its worth between “€400-600 million” (S$571.7-857.5 million).
Last autumn, PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, in dispute with the city of Paris, which does not want to sell him the Parc des Princes, suggested his club might buy the stadium in Saint-Denis.
But the notion that his club might move 15km across Paris and potentially alienate fans, was greeted with scepticism.
Fifa, the world governing body of football, told AFP that, despite reports in French media, it was not interested.
The consortium that manages the Stade de France has not revealed its intentions but sources said “candidates could be identified by the end of April” with “first offers in the autumn”.
PSG are seeking a new home but for now, the focus is on the pitch.
Coach Christophe Galtier said on Friday that star forward Neymar will miss the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Bayern Munich on Wednesday with an ankle ligament injury.
The reigning Ligue 1 champions will also be without defender Achraf Hakimi, who was charged with rape on Friday, as they seek to overturn a 1-0 deficit in the European clash at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday. REUTERS, AFP
