Paris FC will play its matches on a rugby field

The Paris FC has a new stadium. As announced by the club yesterday evening, an agreement has been reached with Stade Français Paris, a rugby team, for the shared use of the Stade Jean-Bouin. The agreement stipulates that the Paris FC will play all of its official home matches here starting from the 2025/26 season and at least until 2029. Stade Français Paris will remain the owner of the facility, but in order to "demonstrate the spirit of cooperation between the two clubs", as stated in the announcement, it will share the facility with Paris FC. The team, owned by the Arnault family, currently competes in Ligue 2 (second division) but, with a possible promotion to Ligue 1 in sight, has found a venue more suited to its needs. Consequently, it will leave its current home stadium, the Stade Charléty, a facility built in 1939 and renovated in 1994, an old-generation stadium whose playing field is surrounded by an athletics track. A stadium that, more than anything, is disliked by Red Bull, the Arnault family's partner in managing Paris FC, to the point that Jürgen Klopp during his only official visit declared: "You can't create an atmosphere here. It’s been a long time since I’ve watched a match from so far away, and I was in the stadium, not in front of the TV."

This move, just a few kilometers away, marks the first significant step by the Louis Vuitton-Red Bull partnership since acquiring Paris FC. The Stade Jean-Bouin is a 20,000-seat venue that underwent a major renovation in 2013. The project was designed by Rudy Ricciotti, and thanks to his architectural vision, the stadium is now recognizable by a fiber-reinforced concrete mesh covering its entire exterior. The structure was built with varying heights to limit the visual impact on the surrounding residents, a solution probably borrowed from the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Furthermore, as stated on the official website: "It stands out for its technological innovation, featuring solar panels for lighting, low-carbon materials, and a rainwater recovery system used for field irrigation." However, this is a temporary solution, or at least that’s the original plan, as the owners of Paris FC aim to renovate Stade Charléty. But, as reported by RMC Sport, they will have to overcome opposition from Paris Université Club, which has its headquarters at Charléty, and from the Fédération française d'athlétisme (French Athletics Federation).

However, there’s one detail that makes Paris FC’s move to Stade Jean-Bouin particularly interesting. The stadium is located literally next to the Parc des Princes, the PSG’s home stadium. It’s not an exaggeration: the two stadiums are separated by a street, the rue Claude-Farrère. The two stadiums almost touch, with probably less than 100 meters separating them at their closest point. They cast shadows on each other. But this doesn’t matter to the Arnault family and Red Bull. Of course, there is a practical issue: Paris doesn’t have many stadiums equipped to host Ligue 1 matches, and perhaps in the near future, European competition games. The Stade Jean-Bouin, therefore, represents a logical choice, perhaps the only real alternative for Paris FC, so much so that negotiations with Stade Français Paris have gone on for months, even hitting moments of stalemate. However, the message is clear: Paris FC is coming and is ready to challenge PSG for cultural, aesthetic, stylistic, social, and sports dominance over the city of Paris. Facing them in their own backyard. And if promotion to Ligue 1 comes at the end of this season, Paris will host the derby between the two closest teams in the world starting in 2025.