Paris Saint-Germain extended their record-breaking unbeaten run in Ligue 1 to 34 games following a 2-1 win away to fierce rivals Olympique Marseille on Sunday night, providing another reminder of the progress that the club have made since the investment from Qatar began.
The Ligue 1 champions have risen to be regulars in the later stages of the Champions League, with star names such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Edinson Cavani increasing the prestige that the Parisian club enjoy outside of their native France.
But PSG are working on expanding that prestige further, with sporting director Frederic Longuepee, visiting India last month, along with French president Francois Hollande, building ties with the country.
On his return from India, Goal spoke with Longuepee about his experience there and the club's status as the ninth biggest in the world, though remained adament that the main goal for the club is sporting success and winning titles.
Question. In India, the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga are the most widely recognised leagues. Can Ligue 1 profit from the emergence of PSG?
Answer. Today PSG are the most important in Ligue 1. This is because of the sporting results and the notoriety, and we are delighted to do our bit to improve the exposure of Ligue 1 aboard. The other European leagues were developed before us and are therefore more advanced.
We can reach 30 million people in India because Ligue 1 is shown on Ten Sports. This will allow us to reach the last untouched bastion of football, which is India. The population is absolutely enormous, with nearly one and a half billion people. In 20 years, it will be the largest country in the world.
Q. Is the Indian Super League (ISL) a competition that PSG follow? Is a partnership with one of the clubs possible?
A. We closely watch what happens in India. We don’t want to be absent from a country that constitutes the future of football. We’ve studied the best method to be present there. When we consider, with the president or Jean-Claude Blanc, moving into a new territory, we look at a number of criteria: the population basis, the hunger for football, the presence or not of a football team, the influence of the internet, the economic development of the country.
When we see all of these things fall into line, we invest time and energy. When we take the decision to do this, we do it in a sustainable manner. We will not exclude any possibility, we watch the ISL, but we also have two academies in the country. We speak with our kit manufacturer as to how to get our strips to the point of sale in India and finally we study the best manner to get our message across on social media.
Q. What role has social media played for PSG in India?
A. From a global point of view, we’re the ninth biggest club in the word. We have enjoyed an incredible growth that has been in line with the development of the club. We have made strides that are greater than anyone else. That’s expected given the level at which we started.
But it underlines the worldwide interest in the PSG brand. Today, we have around 30 million fans in the world, with a platform built in Brazil, Indonesia and France. India comes in seventh place, with almost 1 million fans on Facebook.
Q. You have spoken of the PSG academies present in India, how do they function? Can we expect to see Indian players come to France?
A. The plan of the academies is to allow young children from six to 16 years old, boys or girls, to share a passion for football. It’s for leisure and they are not recruitment centres, even if we won’t rule out the prospect of taking the next Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Lionel Messi. The principle goal is to make contact with the population and show them the educational values of the club.
Q. You want to develop football in the country – so you must have spoken to the local authorities?
A. We took advantage of a trip there with Francois Hollande to meet our operator on site, who manages our academies there on our behalf. But equally, we met the president of the Indian Football Federation with whom we spoke about the practical development of football, on the ISL, on the possibility of PSG going to India. These are topics that are part of the main objectives of the club.
Q. Is this the best means to develop the presence of the club in a country or would it be more productive if the first team came over?
A. You’re right, it’s one of the primary principles for the international development of a club. It’s important to do it at the opportune moment. We don’t exclude coming here one day when all the criteria come together. I’ve spoken particularly of using coaching at an Indian partner as a means of justifying taking the club over there.
Q. Would this happen as a training camp, like you have done in Qatar or the USA?
A. The calendar is not so simple. The goal of the club remains winning titles. The DNA of the club is sport. We cannot allow our aim of brand development to rise above them. We regularly speak with the sporting staff on the best manner to advance the two projects in parallel. Nasser Al-Khelaifi wants the club to become a European giant, while all the while developing a great sporting franchise. Sporting success is required for the brand to develop.
Q. On the other hand, could an Indian team be welcomed in France by PSG?
A. That’s already happened, when we organised the Paris Saint-Germain Academy Cup last year. There were different teams from our academies all over the world, including Qatar, Brazil... but also an Indian team. It was a great event that will return in 2016 in France.
Q. Could these partners even go beyond that? In Qatar, for example, you use the medical expertise at Aspire.
A. India is a country that has known an incredible and very quick economic growth. This country has allowed great economic actors to emerge. If we’re successful at developing these intelligent economic partners with great Indian leaders in the domain of information technology, that’s interesting.
Q. Beyond India, is the project global?
A. Of course. We are lucky to be a sporting club in one of the most iconic cities in the world. When we go to promote the brand of PSG, we appreciate the strength of the brand of ‘Paris’, which is something we want to use. It represents the values of humanity and of elegance. It crosses a great number of cultural barriers. We’re called Paris and we’re the only club in the capital in the premier division. In London, there is no team with the city in its name. In Madrid, there are two. This represents an incredible opportunity and we would be wrong not to capitalise.
Of course, we must pay attention not to rest. We are the 12th brand, from what Forbes reported this year. So we must avoid spending too much energy in areas that we know will be complicated.
STRAIGHT FROM------ GOAL.COM
No comments:
Post a Comment