The benefactor club model has worked well in England in the sense that it has delivered success to clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City and, on a smaller scale, Fulham. It does, however, face greater challenges in France.
The benefactor club model has worked well in England in the sense that it has delivered success to clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City and, on a smaller scale, Fulham. It does, however, face greater challenges in France.
The new majority owner of Paris Saint-Germain, the Qatari Investment Authority, went on a net £72.7m spending spree in the transfer window. However, in the era of Financial Fair Play (FFP), you have to grow revenues as well. Moreover, France has its own domestic version of FFP, the Direction Nationale du Controle de Gestion whose rules are in many respects tigher than those of Uefa.
Along with Marseilles, PSG have the greatest fan base in France. They are the only big club in Paris which is inconceivable from a British perspective. They have a decent stadium in the 48,000 seat Parc de Princes and the 81,338 capacity Stade de France is available nearby.
Yet, despite a good season, PSG averaged crowds of just 29,317 last year. Between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s after the disappearance of Racing Club there was no top-flight football in the French capital. Some fans even get on the Eurostar to support Arsenal.
Canal+, which holds the domestic television rights, has fewer than six million subscribers, considerably less than their equivalents in the UK, Spain and Italy. Marseilles, the club who earned the most from domestic television last season, made marginally more than Blackpool, the bottom club in the Premier League, in terms of television revnue.