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Paris Saint-Germain
Club information
Full name
Paris Saint-Germain Rugby League
Nickname(s)
Les Parisiens (The Parisians) Les Rouge-et-Bleu (The Red-and-Blues)
Paris Saint-Germain Rugby League, commonly referred to as PSG Rugby League or PSG RL, was a French professional rugby league club based in Paris, France. It was the rugby league department of parent club Paris Saint-Germain FC. Established in 1995, PSG RL played in the Super League, the top division of the British rugby league system, until its closure in 1997. The Stade Sébastien Charléty, with a capacity of 20,000 spectators, served as the team's home ground.
As a former rugby union executive, Fouroux had an existing relationship with top execs at French TV channel Canal+, the owners of parent club Paris Saint-Germain, which at the time was attempting to establish itself as a multisports club in the mold of Stade Français or Racing Club de France.[4][5] Due to its notoriety and ready-made connections with the broadcasting world, he quickly saw the PSG brand as the ideal vehicle for his project.[6] A second team based in Toulouse was also considered, before it was decided to focus the French game's limited resources on Paris.[7][8] The choice of the capital was resented by the leadership of some traditional southern clubs.[8]
Led by Fouroux, Paris Saint-Germain Rugby League was officially announced as PSG's newest department on 23 December 1995.[9] With the backing of Canal+, Lindsay and Murdoch, the club joined the newly formed Super League, made up exclusively of English teams, for its inaugural season in 1996.[10][11][12][13] As a result, the France Rugby League was re-positioned as a developmental circuit for PSG RL, with its Paris–Île-de-France selects team taking the name PSG Espoirs Île-de-France ('PSG Île-de-France Prospects').[14][15] The alliance also yielded a watershed three-year broadcasting agreement with Canal+.[8] The team, which settled at the Stade Sébastien Charléty, was built on short order. Veteran French head coach Michel Mazaré and his assistant Englishman David Ellis were both hired within two weeks of one another in December 1995.[16][17]
Fouroux was appointed as club president. Tas Baitieri, a France-based Australian player-turned-executive with a long experience serving as a go-between between his adopted country and the game's Anglo-Saxon authorities, was named as the team's football manager.[1][8][18] Baitieri was allowed to work for Paris while also being employed by the Australian Rugby League Commission.[19] The entire PSG RL organization came together in short order, taking only eight months to go from the drawing board to its competitive debut, a hectic schedule which Baitieri negatively compared with the three years typically afforded to an ARL expansion franchise.[20]
Club president Fouroux and team coach Mazaré pre-selected 40 players in the French Rugby League Championship to make the team, before announcing the final list comprised of 26. The squad included nine foreign players, mostly Australians, New Zealanders and Samoans, but also a Moldovan, the first Polish player to ever play in Super League, Grzegorz Kacała, and the star of this PSG team: Englishman Darren Adams, former player of rugby union club Racing 92.[11][12][21] PSG even tried to sign New Zealand All Blacks legend John Kirwan, without success.[11][22]
The Parisians played their first official match on 29 March 1996, against Sheffield Eagles at Charléty, in front of 17,873 fans, the biggest for a rugby league game in France for 38 years. It was also the first match in the history of the Super League and the first rugby league game in Paris since 1972. Amid enormous buzz and scepticism, the team coached by Mazaré made a dream start. PSG held their own against Sheffield, with the score tied at halftime. After the break, Paris went ahead in the 65th minute through a Renaud Cervello try following an interception and an 80-meter run. Cervello scored again five minutes later to seal the 30–24 victory for the home side, but it was just one of three wins by the Paris team throughout the 1996 season.[10][11][12][22][23]
However, the rest of the season would not be quite as successful. With reduced attendances, including only 5,000 people for the second match against Oldham, PSG RL came crashing back down to earth after a 76–8 thrashing at Wigan, in front of 20,000 spectators.[11]
Built on an unconventional template, the team did not prove financially viable and disbanded after two seasons.[24]
The initial plan was to run the Paris team, coached by former French national coach Michel Mazaré, on the same model as the teams of France Rugby League: a select squad drawing its players from existing French championship clubs, albeit one whose territory would encompass the entire French rugby league membership rather than a single region.[20][25] However it soon became clear, due to the French game's decline over the preceding decades, as well as overlap between the final stretch of the French championship and the early weeks of Super League, that additional players would need to be recruited. Halfway into the season, the team lost founding figures Fouroux and Baitieri (the former unexpectedly returning to rugby union and the later fulfilling his obligations to the ARL), leaving various RFL and French federation executives to wrestle for control of the team as the logistical and financial challenges of Fouroux's initial plan were fast becoming apparent.[19][26] Despite several foreign additions throughout the season, PSG only barely escaped relegation, finishing in 11th place only two points ahead of last-place Workington Town. This was, however, in line with management's own pre-season projections.[27]
For the second season, the team abandoned the selects concept entirely, and relied on full-timers. The coaching job went to Australian Peter Mulholland (who was replaced by Englishman Andy Goodway after a slow start), while the share allocated to domestic players greatly decreased under both the RFL's pressure for better results, and an increasing lack of cooperation from more storied French clubs, who resented loaning their talent to a propped-up Paris side.[28] The team's mounting financial issues lead its parent organization to temporarily strip it of the PSG name in the middle of the season, and further negative attention arose when it was publicized that many of its imports were salaried in the U.K. rather than France, as part of a tax avoidance scheme.[29] The results marginally improved to 6 wins, although the team again finished in 11th place. In addition to the Super League, PSG RL also played in the Challenge Cup, the reborn World Club Challenge and an expanded Rugby League Premiership that season, without notable results.[24]
During PSG's second season, Lindsay, desperate for the experiment to succeed, sent his deputy, Robert Elstone and chief administrator, Harry Jepson, to Paris to try to save the club. Disengaged from the rugby league heartland in the south of the country, the Parisian project was probably doomed from the start, reflected in attendances, which plummeted dramatically after PSG's opening win against the Sheffield Eagles. The end was in sight when it was revealed that the club's Australian players were in France on tourist visas to avoid paying tax. That scandal, coupled with severe financial problems, eventually led to the club's bankruptcy, and on 3 November 1997 it was announced that Huddersfield Giants would replace Paris in the Super League for 1998.[12][23][30]
While the team managed to avoid relegation on the pitch, its peculiar business model and lack of market share hampered its profitability, and it was dissolved at the end of the season in November 1997.[30] Former PSG player Laurent Lucchese commented: "I understand why Jacques Fouroux wanted a team in Paris, to promote the sport and have television coverage at the Stade Sébastien Charléty, but I think we should have moved the club to be closer to the fans and play in different locations in the south of France. A club without roots cannot last for long."[31]
Legacy
Effects on English clubs
Rugby Football League (RFL) chief executive Maurice Lindsay devised Super League, a new league featuring teams from cities across the continent, with the help of £87 million from media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who in turn dreamed of a rugby world championship to which he would own all the television rights.[11][23] PSG were granted a place in the competition for the 1996 season to give British rugby's top flight a French and European dimension. However, their inclusion had serious consequences for several clubs and the sport in general.[12]
The 12-team Super League replaced the original 16-team First Division. PSG and the London Broncos, who had just finished fourth in the Second Division, were given places in the top flight, while teams finishing lower than 10th in the First Division were excluded, such as Featherstone Rovers, Wakefield Trinity, Hull F.C. and Widnes Vikings. Also left out were the Keighley Cougars, who had just finished first in the Second Division and would have been promoted had the Super League not existed. Featherstone never returned to the top flight, while Hull collapsed financially and had to merge with Newcastle Thunder, which had catastrophic consequences for rugby league in the North East, with a fan base that remains bitter to this day.[12]
Dragons and Toulouse
PSG's victory over Sheffield in the inaugural Super League match was a pivotal moment in the history of rugby league in France. It created a French legacy that still endures, proving that a French team could compete and be popular in the top flight, as well as boosting the Super League's image as something new and innovative, as well as European, rather than merely English. As a result, the original Paris experiment would be one of the key reasons why French clubs Catalans Dragons and Toulouse Olympique eventually secured places in the Super League.[12]
French Rugby League Federation president Jean-Paul Ferré promised to return with a new team as part of an expansion proposal in 1999. Paris was briefly considered, but the most likely location this time was Toulouse.[32][33] Neither option materialized, but the door was reopened in 2002 when French clubs were invited to apply for a Super League spot. The Perpignan-based Catalans Dragons were chosen ahead of Toulouse Olympique, who were again considered by some to be the favorites at the start of the selection process. The Dragons made their debut in 2006.[34] Toulouse would finally join the Super League 20 years later, in 2026.[12]
The professional experience that PSG players brought back to their French league clubs was credited with making the Dragons' transition to the Super League smoother.[31] Fouroux's aggressive promotional tactics at PSG were also cited as a precursor to the more widely recognised marketing efforts of rugby union team Stade Français under chairman Max Guazzini.[35] The club also became known for being the first in the RFL system to entrust a managerial role to a woman, Rebecca Cove.[36]
Business model
PSG Rugby League attempted to expand the sport beyond its traditional demographic and geared itself entirely towards a casual audience.[37] The spectator experience was promoted as much as the on-field product, with a pre-match show featuring pyrotechnics and musical performances.[19][38] To further maximize the team's reach, most tickets were distributed free of charge and offered as incentives to sponsors, who could distribute them as rewards to customers.[25] The spectacle of generous crowds, amplified by the expected extensive television coverage from Canal+, owners of parent club Paris Saint-Germain FC, was supposed to create a virtuous circle, attracting more corporate sponsors and propelling the team towards profitability.[4]
Based on spectacular attendance figures for the early matches, the strategy was praised, with Bradford Bulls chairman Chris Caisley crediting PSG RL with being the only club other than his own to have made a genuine effort to live up to Super League aspirations.[37] However, the hastily formed team was launched without any major corporate sponsors, and beyond a prestigious name, the partnership with Paris Saint-Germain offered little financial security as PSG did not own the team.[27][39] With only a peripheral involvement, Canal+ had little incentive to bet heavily on rugby league, and the much-vaunted broadcast deal rarely resulted in more than highlights packages.[40]
Ultimately, PSG RL never developed the necessary network of corporate partners, as many tickets were distributed through public institutions, while Murdoch and the RFL had to absorb most of their losses. In late October 1997, RFL chairman Rodney Walker, a political rival of RFL chief executive and PSG cheerleader Lindsay, declared: "We have decided that we can no longer offer subsidies to PSG. They have to find ways of generating income, something they have failed to do to date." With little hope of surviving on their own, the team disbanded soon after.[41]
Midway through the 2023–24 Ligue 2 season, French football club Paris FC, who also play at Charléty, announced that they would be transitioning to a similar free entry scheme in the hope of boosting their dwindling attendance at the notoriously unpopular venue.[42]
1 2 Irvine, Christopher (30 March 1996). "French chalk up opening triumph". The Times. London.
↑ Perrin, Frank (7 December 2021). "6 – Pioneering Rugby League". Rugby League, Rugby of The Future. Carcassonne: Fédération Française de Rugby à XIII. p.129. ISBN9782322400539.
1 2 Burke, David (3 November 1997). "Rugby League". Manchester Evening News. p.Sport 15. Huddersfield Giants have been given a passport into Super League for next season [...] they will replace Paris Saint-Germain.
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