Paris Saint-Germain FC

Paris Saint-Germain FC

Football club infobox
clubname = Paris Saint-Germain


fullname = Paris Saint-Germain
Football Club
nickname = "PSG"
founded = 1904/1970
ground = Parc des Princes,
Paris
capacity = 46,480
chairman = flagicon|France Charles Villeneuve
manager = flagicon|France Paul Le Guen
league = Ligue 1
season = 2007-2008
position = Ligue 1, 16th
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Paris Saint-Germain Football Club, or PSG, is a French football club based in Paris. Their home stadium is Parc des Princes, and the team has always played in the French top flight, since its foundation in 1970.

History

The club was founded 1904 with the name "Stade Saint Germain". The current name appeared in August 1970 by the merger of Paris FC (a pool of financial investors) 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 "Division nationale" (second division) for the 1970–71 season, emerging as league champions and achieving a first division promotion 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, while the amateur part of the club continued in the third division as Paris Saint-Germain. The latter were 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 FC. In an ironic twist, Paris FC was relegated in that season and Paris-Saint Germain would henceforth always play at the newly rebuilt Parc des Princes, once the ground of the former.

Francis Borelli era (1978-1991)

Francis Borelli took over as club chairman in 1978; under his control, Paris-Saint Germain conquered its first major trophies: two French Cups (1982, 1983) and the 1985-1986 French league.

The most notable players of this period were Carlos Bianchi, Dominique Baratelli, Luis Fernandez, Ivica Surjak, Dominique Bathenay and Dominique Rocheteau first, Safet Susic, Joël Bats, and Gabriel Calderón later, with Georges Peyroche, Gérard Houllier, Lucien Leduc and Tomislav Ivic as some of the coaches.

Canal + era (1991-2006)

In 1991, Borelli was forced to hand over control to Canal+, which invested the team in order to compete with Olympique de Marseille, starting an intense rivalry. After three years, the club enjoyed some success, 1st in 1993 league after Marseille's title was revoked for match fixing AND winning the 1993-1994 league . However, the TV network refused Paris-Saint Germain permission to accept the title relinquished by l'OM after their forced demotion to the second division for corruption. Canal+ feared the reactions of its subscribers in Provence, and even threatened to withdraw from football completely if the title was allocated to Paris-Saint Germain. Therefore, both the League and the Federation accepted and the 1993 title remained “not allotted”. The team were not even allowed by main sponsor to enter the UEFA Champions League after Marseille's exclusion. [J.F. Pérès et D. Riolo, OM Paris-Saint Germain, les meilleurs ennemis, enquête sur une rivalité, Paris, Mango Sport, December 2003, p. 131-137] The club's fortunes in Europe also took an upturn as they won the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1996, beating Rapid Vienna 1-0 in the final. They also reached the following year’s final, only to lose, again 1-0, to FC Barcelona.

During this period, Paris-Saint Germain also fared well in the French Cup, winning it in 1993, 1995, 1998, 2004, and 2006. In addition, they won three French League Cups (1995, 1998 and 2008).

Among the players who were the foundations of this mid-1990s success were Bernard Lama, Alain Roche, Ricardo Gomes, Valdo, David Ginola, George Weah, Raí and Youri Djorkaeff, with coaches such as Artur Jorge and Luis Fernández (who returned to the team as a manager for two stints (1994-96 and 2000-03).

The takeover of the club by Canal+ was gradually carried out. Starting in 1991, it started gaining shares of the club, but it wasn’t until 1997 that the TV channel started to own the majority of them. After June 2001, Canal+ obtained another 34% of the shares, and in August 2005 they obtained the other 2% held by Alain Cayzac, making it Paris-Saint Germain’s only shareholder.

In 1998, after seven years with Michel Denisot in charge, Charles Biétry took over, but resigned after six months leaving the club heavily involved in debt. Paris-Saint Germain were also mis-handling important deals such as the sale of Nicolas Anelka to Arsenal FC, who proceeded to sell the player 2 years later to Real Madrid for €33.2 million. After this era of upheaval, Paris-Saint Germain tried to find balance and stability.

In 2000, Paris-Saint Germain were one of the 14 founder members of G14. During this period, the return of club legend Fernández as manager did not improve the sporting situation, in spite of the talent of players such as Ronaldinho. Meanwhile, the debt of the club had also been multiplied by two.

The duo of Francis Graille and Vahid Halilhodzic were called in to rescue the club, which was forced to slash its expenditure by 40%. In spite of this problem, Paris-Saint Germain had an excellent 2003-2004 season, winning the French Cup and finishing second in the league, which got them into the Champions League.

That season was to be proven more difficult. Paris-Saint Germain were quickly eliminated from Europe's main competition and performed sluggishly in the championship, creating a crisis with the supporters, who were against the policy followed by Canal+. Halilhodzic was fired on February 8, 2005, and replaced by Laurent Fournier, a former midfielder with the club. President Francis Graille was also fired by Canal+ on May 2, 2005, with Pierre Blayau taking over. His pet project, which consisted of repurchasing shares of the club, did not impress Canal+, which reaffirmed its desire to remain in charge of Paris-Saint Germain, despite all the rumours of the progressive disengagement of the majority shareholder.

On December 27, 2005, Fournier was fired by Blayau, even though Paris-Saint Germain were only one point away from second place in Ligue 1 at the time. Guy Lacombe was named as his replacement after Paul Le Guen, who had just guided Olympique Lyonnais to three successive league titles, turned down the post.

On April 11, 2006, Canal+ announced 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. The club was sold for an undisclosed amount with Canal+ taking responsibility for the debt run up by the club under its direction. This sale became effective on June 20, 2006, following which Alain Cayzac replaced Blayau.

truggle and the dawn of a new era

Paris-Saint Germain began the 2006-07 season poorly, and headed into the winter break in 16th position in the table. After their second UEFA Cup group match against Hapoel Tel Aviv in Paris on November 24, which they lost 4-2, angry fans (in particular members of the non-recognized independent groups in Boulogne, associated with far-right political ideals which include racism and anti-semitism) used violence as a means of showing their discontent with their team's poor performance. Incensed by the shock defeat, in conjunction with the club's poor domestic league form, and the fact that Paris-Saint Germain were beaten by an Israeli team, a group of supporters chased and threatened a French fan of Hapoel. In response, a lone black policeman came to the rescue, with the crowd reportedly shouting many derogatory phrases towards both the policeman and the fan. After firing warning tear gas shells, the policeman fired his gun twice, killing one perpetrator and wounding another. Following this incident, the lower stand of the Boulogne area of the Parc des Princes was closed for two months.

After a home defeat by Valenciennes on January 15, 2007, Lacombe was sacked and replaced by Le Guen, himself a former Paris-Saint Germain player whose success as Lyon manager had been followed by a poor season with Rangers in Scotland. Le Guen guided Paris-Saint Germain to the UEFA Cup quarter-final, where they were defeated by Portuguese side SL Benfica, and a 15th place finish in the league. Portuguese striker Pauleta again finished the season as the team's league top scorer, netting 15 times.

Paris-Saint Germain opened the 2007-08 season at home to Cup holders FC Sochaux-Montbéliard on August 4 with an unimpressive 0-0 draw. PSG did not concede a goal for the first 249 minutes of the season, a streak broken when Marama Vahirua equalised for FC Lorient in the third matchday, "en route" to a surprise 3-1 win in Paris. However, after picking up 7 points in three matches, including away wins to Le Mans and AS Monaco, Paris-Saint Germain moved up to 11th place. After an home loss to Girondins de Bordeaux, Le Guen changed the starting eleven, bringing in homegrown talent such as Mamadou Sakho, Loris Arnaud, Younousse Sankharé and David N'Gog. The latter scored twice in a League Cup victory at Lorient. However, Paris-Saint Germain continued to struggle in the league.

The team rebounded with another impressive League Cup success, this time against Montpellier HSC, with Pauleta scoring both goals, including his 100th goal for the French capital outfit.

Following the international break, Paris-Saint Germain stood in 14th place in the table. When the team returned, they suffered a 2-1 defeat at the Stade du Ray and plunging into the relegation zone. For the December 1, 2007 match at home against SM Caen, both major Parisian supporters groups went "on strike" for the first 15 minutes, making a delayed entrance before encouraging their team. Paris-Saint Germain ultimately lost 1-0, effectively placing the club on "crisis mode".

Even though the club continued to lose momentum in the league (with 6 defeats, 2 draws and 1 win in 9 league outings through March-April, eventually finishing 16th, just three points above relegation zone), it did nonetheless win the 2008 League Cup, and reached the Cup final, losing in extra time against Lyon after a goal correctly scored by Sylvain Armand was incorrectly ruled to be offside at the close of the first half.

In recent seasons Paris-Saint Germain's form has slipped from a 9th polace position in 2004/2005 and in 2005/2006. In 2006/2007 Paris-Saint Germain did not impress after they didn't even reach the final in either cups and came 15th in the league just 3 places from relegation.

in 2007/2008 Paris-Saint Germain lost in the final of the French equivelent to the FA Cup- formally known as the Coupe De France. The score was 1-0 to Ligue 1 champions Olympique Lyonnais. Paris-Saint Germain torn Lyon's defence ragged for most of the game and had a goal incorrectly ruled off-side. It was scored by Sylvian Armand. Lyon held on to 0-0 after 90 minutes and won the game in Extra Time.

In 2007/2008 PSG finished a place behind where they finished the last season(2006/2007). PSG sat in the relegation zone for most of the season but they dodged out of the relegation zone when they won both of their last two games.

Colours & badge

List of managers

{|
valign="top" width="20%"

*flagicon|France Pierre Phelipon (1970-72)
*flagicon|France Robert Vicot (1972-75)
*flagicon|France Just Fontaine (1973-76)
*flagicon|Serbia flagicon|France Velibor Vasović (1976-77, 1978-79)
*flagicon|France Jean-Michel Larqué (1977-78)
*flagicon|France flagicon|Algeria Pierre Alonzo (1976-77, 1978-80)
*flagicon|France Georges Peyroche (1979-83, 1984-85)
*flagicon|France Lucien Leduc (1983-84)
*flagicon|France Christian Coste (1984-85)
*flagicon|France Gérard Houllier (1985-88)
*flagicon|France Erick Mombaerts (1988)
*flagicon|Croatia Tomislav Ivić (1988-90)
*flagicon|France Henri Michel (1990-91)
*flagicon|Portugal Artur Jorge (1991-94, 1998-99)
*flagicon|France Luis Fernández (1994-96, 2000-03)
*flagicon|Brazil Ricardo Gomes (1996-98)
*flagicon|France Alain Giresse (1998)
*flagicon|France Philippe Bergeroo (1999-00)
*flagicon|Bosnia and Herzegovina Vahid Halilhodžić (2003-05)
*flagicon|France Laurent Fournier (2005-06)
*flagicon|France Guy Lacombe (2006-07)
*flagicon|France Paul Le Guen (2007-?)

References

External links

*fr icon [http://www.psg.fr/ Official site]
*pl icon [http://psgonline.pl/ Polish fan club]
*fr icon en icon [http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/PSGNewYorkFans/ New York City fan club]
*fr icon en icon [http://www.kopoflondon.com/ London fan club]


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