Antoine Arnault on Paris FC, Jürgen Klopp and forming France’s next superstars

“It’s a family project, which we discussed at length with my brothers and sister,” insisted Antoine Arnault as he revealed the clan’s latest acquisition – not in fashion, but in football – Paris FC.

“It’s not a classic project in fashion and luxury for us. This very different,” Arnault added, one reason he called a press conference in the gritty Saules neighborhood of south Paris, where Paris FC’s HQ is located.
 
“We wanted to introduce you to our training ground. In my opinion, it’s impressive. When I first came, I was agreeably surprised. Plus, there’s physically room to grow,” enthused Antoine, whose father Bernard Arnault is Europe’s richest man.

It’s certainly spacious with four well-kept football fields, gym and dressing rooms, painted in the Yale blue colors of Paris FC, often called PFC. That said, Saules has about as much in common with LVMH’s super stores in central Paris like Dior or Louis Vuitton, as, well, PFC has with football super-powers like Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
 
News of the acquisition first surfaced in in October, though negotiations began back in April. The deal will happen in two stages, with the Arnault family investment vehicle Agache buying an initial 52% stake and energy drinks giant Red Bull an 11% stake. Pierre Ferracci, the 72-year-old businessman who has helmed the club since 2012, will maintain a 30% stake before handing that over in 2027, when Agache’s stake will rise to over 80% and Red Bull’s to 15%.
 
Technically, the deal to buy PFC – which lost €10 million last year – will be “completed in the coming days.” No price tag was revealed, but Agache is expected to sink at least €100 into the club in the next couple of seasons, even more if the team wins promotion this season.

The long-term goal is that PFC rivals Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), the dominant French football team, owned by Qatar Sports Investments. Since it took over PSG in 2011, the team has won the Ligue 1 title in 10 of the past 12 seasons and reached the Champions League final in 2020.
 
Ironically, luxury heir Antoine is a huge PSG supporter, cautioning: “I have loved PSG since I was 12. And I never want anyone to say anything negative about PSG. It will always be in my heart. Even if Paris wins promotion into Ligue 1, I will still support PSG, though of course not twice a year! There is plenty of room for two teams in Paris.”
 
Red Bull already has a large stable of football clubs including Champions League regulars RB Leipzig, Red Bull Salzburg and New York Red Bulls. It recently appointed Jürgen Klopp as head of football operations, and Arnault indicated that the former Liverpool manager will be involved in Paris FC.
 
“We’ve spent lots of time with Red Bull and Jürgen who is very excited by this project and the idea of working in Paris and letting the team benefit from his unique eye,” underlined Antoine, whose father Bernard Arnault is chairman and CEO of LVMH, a luxury behemoth that controls some 75 prestige brands.
 
Arnault underlined three key pillars to the project.
 
“First and most essential – protecting the values. Rigor, engagement, respect for each other and the fact that the club matters most. We’d like a club à l’anglaise,” he quipped, referring to how English clubs have such committed communities.

The second element is Paris, whose suburbs have produced a remarkable series of brilliant footballers these past 30 years, the backbone of two French World Cup winning teams. 
 
“We believe the Paris basin is the greatest source of football talent in the world, better even that São Paulo. We want the next generation to park their luggage here and become the best in the world, without leaving this city.”
 
Pointing to Red Bull’s Leipzig which has reached the Champions League with a half-dozen players formed in the club. One lone ex-Paris FC player has made a huge impact, Ibrahim Konaté, the center-back of current Premiership leaders Liverpool, and recent captain of France’s national team. But Konaté left PFC at the age of 15.
 
“Third, this is a long-term project. We need to give the team and management time, to create magic. We have learned that from fashion, where a designer needs time to create a skilled team and invent,” he noted.
 
Added Ferracci: “About half the teams in France are controlled by foreign shareholders, so having a French investor is great. When the investment bank proposed I meet the Arnaults, they suggested that Red Bull be involved. I must admit I admired their management skills not so much Red Bull’s multi-club model.”
 
Prompting Antoine to stress, PFC would not be a Red Bull controlled team.
 
Paris FC’s home stadium is at Stade Sébastien-Charléty, a 20,000-seat state-owned ground that also hosts a rugby team. It was originally opened in 1938, before being radically redesigned with great élan in 1994 by brother architects Henri and Bruno Gaudin in the tensile nautical style popular in the Mitterrand era.
 
Founded in 1972, Paris FC has an erratic history, and has only played for three seasons in Ligue 1, the French first division. After plummeting several division it returned to Ligue 2 in 2015. Last season, the team began playing outside of Stade Charléty due to the disastrous condition of its playing surface before returning and reaching the playoffs. Paris FC’s women’s team is further advanced, even featuring in the Champions League last season.
 
In a novel move, Paris FC made attendance at home games free last season, leading to a record attendance of over 17,000 spectators against Saint Etienne in March.

Asked by L’Equipe if he would continue the freebies, Arnault responded: “I will say that the stadium will be accessible, and have very modest ticket prices. And some free seats, even if we gain promotion to Ligue 1. But we expect to have a better quality of loge for sure for our partners.” 
 
At PSG’s ground, Parc des Princes, pretty French lady ushers spritz cologne on guests coming to reserved boxes, where fans dine on foie gras and cognac pre-match. Though, Arnault cautioned that no pressure will be put on any LVMH brand to partner with PFC. That said, this summer LVMH did raise eyebrows with its hyper visible product placement in the Paris Olympic Games, designing the medals and the presentation trays in Vuitton damier print.
 
However, if PFC wants to attract upper echelon sponsors, a radical upgrade will be needed at Stade Charléty, a windy complex with a running track meaning even front row fans are at least 30 meters from players.
 
“I believe our fans are very attached to Charléty. It’s not perhaps ideal for football, but it could be part of our project. Do not exclude it. Other options are Stade Bouin (a ground in west Paris), though it has a rugby team also. Plus, we can play elsewhere while Charley is redesigned. All these options we will discuss these in next few weeks,” he shrugged. 
 
Judging by other recent renovations, any redevelopment would run into hundreds of millions of euros. An even bigger potential headache is French football TV rights which collapsed in value after the departure of PSG stars Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kilian Mbappé, falling in half to €500 million per season, one tenth of what the Premiership receives.
 
Conceding it was a tough market, Antoine concluded: “This is less about making money, than creating emotion and something positive in sport. We were all very marked by the reaction to the Paris Olympics.  Our family wants to render to Paris and France what has been given to us. The idea is not to throw in money and forget about profitability. But we do want to make Parisians happy.” 

Reminiscing about watching football, Arnault waxed lyrically about France beating Italy in extra time in the European Championship Final in 2000, and PSG winning the Cup Winners’ Cup in Brussels four years before. Though, revealing, he ended by extolling the football tactics of Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.
 
“I love that style of play!”