Breaking the Offside Trap 04.22.08: Capital Punishment

Posted by Matt Snelling on 04.22.2008

Paris is a city of millions of inhabitants. It is one of the most iconic locations in the world and it is the city where France captured the 1998 World Cup so memorably on home soil. However, the desperate plight of Paris Saint-Germain means that next season could see the unthinkable – Paris without a top flight team



There is a piece of football trivia that has been often trotted out this season in Britain, that Hull, a town of around a quarter of a million inhabitants in the north of England is the largest urban conurbation in Europe never to have been home to a top flight football team. This season, this particular stat which has been thrown at Hull City fans over the last few years could well be laid to rest as the men from Humberside look well positioned to earn a place in the Premier League next season. If it were not to happen though, looking elsewhere around Europe, it becomes evident that there is also an increasingly strong chance that a far larger city will be devoid of top flight football next season. The capital city of France.

For while there may be raucous celebration in the streets of Hull come this May, there may be an altogether more depressing tone falling upon Paris where there is the very real possibility that one of the world's most famous cities, in one of the world's strongest footballing nations will have no representative in their domestic championship. Paris Saint-Germain, a club who have seemed to lurch from one crisis to another since the turn of the century currently sit in 18th place in the French Championat, 3 points behind Lens and safety and occupying the last relegation spot. With only 4 games left to play, confidence shattered and a 3-0 defeat to Caen at the weekend, hope and optimism appears in short supply and a relegation to Ligue 2 looms like a black storm cloud on the horizon.

If the club is to tumble out of the top division, the resulting fallout will last long and loud. There is a saying in football that is frequently heard, a side is ‘too good to go down'. Recent history, and exhibits such as Leeds, Athletico Madrid and Napoli would suggest otherwise. In fact this phrase has never really seemed to make much sense, indeed ‘too big to go down' would seem to be far more appropriate. Anyone who has seen PSG play this season would be loath to say they are too good.

If, or indeed as appears more and more likely, when the fall from grace does come the autopsy should be extensive. How is it exactly that a club from France's capital who was playing in the Champions League as little as 3 seasons ago and who have won trophies home and abroad come to be in such a perilous position? As would appear the case when all large institutions sail into rough waters – many an accusing finger should point towards chronic mismanagement from the top down.

The success of PSG in the mid 1990's, when players such as George Weah, Youri Djorkaeff, David Ginola and the Brazilians Rai and Leonardo lit up the Parc des Princes was inextricably linked to the involvement of the French television company Canal +. The infusion of money from the broadcaster allowed PSG to compete on a financial level with the traditional powerhouse of the French game, Olympique Marseille and the championship title arrived in the capital for only the second time in 1994. One year later and Bruno N'Gotty's free kick secured the European Cup Winners Cup against Rapid Vienna.

Yet the successes were to be short lived, and increasingly, like many other clubs all round the world, debts began to spiral out of control. Huge amounts of money were laid out on a number of high profile players who flopped badly. Extravagant purchases like Jay-Jay Okocha, Stephane Dalmat, Hugo Leal and particularly Nicolas Anelka (individually costing a cool £22 million) were designed to turn PSG into a force to be reckoned with in Europe, yet poor player recruitment policies meant imbalanced and under performing sides on the field and mounting losses off them. Not even the signing of Ronaldinho improved matters, with the player inconsistent and unhappy during his spell in the capital. The rot had set in, and despite brief shoots of life over the past few years, including a number of cup successes and a Champions League qualification, the failures of this season have been a disaster waiting to happen for some time now.

Indeed given the names that have at one time or another plied their trade at the Parc des Princes; the current team represents a shell of what has gone before. Whilst the squad currently sitting third bottom of the league contains a number of promising young names, it is far removed from the days of former Ballon d'Or winners like Weah. Gone are the days of PSG splashing out millions on players. Huge debts run up at the turn of the century have meant a significant reduction in the budget for player recruitment. The result has been a significant reduction in the quality of the players in the squad and of course a significant reduction in the position in the league.

The worsening financial position meant that in 2006, Canal + sold their majority shareholding in the club to a combination of 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. The misery off the field has been steadily matched by a number of dreadful performances on it and a vast turnover in the playing staff. Last summer 7 players came in, with 14 shipped out, gambles like injury prone and aging Argentinean playmaker Marcelo Gallardo firmly not paying off. Transfer dealing in recent times has very much been dictated by the maxim of quantity rather than quality.

Last season the signs of imminent disaster were plain for all to see. Under Guy Lacombe the team hurtled towards the drop zone, prompting his dismissal in January 2007. The appointment of former Lyon and Rangers manager Paul Le Guen resulted in a brief revival and they finished last season 15th. The respite may prove brief. This time around, and with little quality added to a team clearly lacking in so many areas, results have continued to tail off, and just 8 wins from 34 league games tells its own story. The stats in this case do not lie. Only 30 goals have been scored thus far, with Pauleta the joint top scorer with 7. Only 1 midfielder in the squad has been able to find the back of the net. Worryingly Le Guen, a man who as a player starred for the club, seems incapable of having any impact.

Just like at Rangers, it seems like the challenge is beyond him. As a manger Le Guen was responsible for leading Lyon to 3 successive titles, and laying many of the foundations that are driving them forward today. Just like in Glasgow though, he appears to be in a position once again where there are deeper failings for why the club he is at is heading where it is. In order to try and avert crisis he decided back at the beginning of the year to drop many of the underperforming journeymen filling out the squad and tried to inject vibrancy and youth into the team by selecting home grown talent such as Mamadou Sakho, Loris Arnaud, Younousse Sankharé and David N'Gog. A desperate relegation battle is not often the climate for young players to shine however and the defeats have continued to pile up. Remarkably, given league form Le Guen actually managed to secure the Coupe De Ligue trophy a couple of weeks ago and PSG are also in the semi finals of the French Cup. These have proved to be only brief respites though, the current team and staff struggling to overcome the mistakes of the past.

For too long now, PSG have bumbled along, making mistake after mistake. Costly players at inflated values have been brought in with seemingly little or no method behind player recruitment. Every summer, the capital club seems to resemble the departure and arrivals lounge at an airport given the constant coming and going. The current playing staff is badly lacking in terms of quality and investment but should still be performing significantly better than is currently the case. They can't get much worse. The entire club is in a malaise, of which the only way out seems to be out of the top flight. Successive years of mismanagement and managerial upheaval has meant a ticking time bomb, one which this season looks set to finally explode. For a club, whose history of success and then experiences of failure has been so closely tied to that of a television company, the story has been suitably like that of a soap opera.

After the weekend's defeat at Caen, Le Guen has tried to remain positive: "All is not lost. We just have to be better in the next matches. I am the head of the team and make the decisions. I take responsibility for the choices." He may take the responsibility, however many of the failings have been out of his control. He inherited a poor and demoralised side, and has had little to no financial backing to solve this. Whilst a club that boosts the talents of talisman and goal scoring hero Pauleta, as well as French internationals Jerome Rothen and Mickael Landreau should in many observers' eyes be strong enough to escape the drop, this season woes are a culmination of years of poor decision making that has finally caught up with Paris Saint-Germain. They may not be the most popular team within France, but it seems incredible, indeed unthinkable that a city with the size and status of Paris, within a nation with as strong as a football tradition as France may not have a top flight football team next season. Regardless of the outcome of Hull City's campaign to get into the Premiership this year, it would seem that we may soon have a new piece of footballing trivia on our hands. What is the largest city in Europe to not have a top division side?