The company operating the Accor Arena in Paris is considering the Stade de France

The public limited company SAE POPB, recently renamed Paris Entertainment Company, operates the sports hall of Paris-Bercy, but also the Bataclan and will also take care of the future Arena La Chapelle, in the 18th arrondissement.

It is a semi-public company in which the City of Paris is the majority shareholder, almost all of the rest of its capital being held by the American company AEG, which specializes in the organization of sporting and musical.

Questioned by AFP, the company neither confirmed nor denied, as did the town hall of Paris, also contacted by AFP.

According to two sources familiar with the case, this semi-public company could join forces with GL Events, a Lyon-based company specializing in events. Questioned by AFP, GL Events neither confirmed nor denied applying for the Stade de France.

The state, owner of the sports arena built for the 1998 World Cup, has launched two procedures in parallel: either a sale or a concession to take over from the current one, which ends in mid-2025.

The very first phase was completed on April 27, when companies interested in either buying or licensing had to come forward.

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The consortium which currently operates the Stade de France, made up of construction groups Vinci and Bouygues, has applied for both procedures, two sources with knowledge of the file told AFP. Questioned by AFP, he did not wish to comment on the current procedure.

The only candidate to have officially come out of the woods as a takeover candidate: the owner of PSG, the Qatari fund QSI (Qatar Sports Investments), against the backdrop of an open conflict with the town hall of Paris over the future of the Parc du Princes, which he wants to buy back from the city.

The State for its part did not cite any names, citing reasons of confidentiality of the procedure. Especially since this one is far from over. The State will soon communicate to the candidates the detailed specifications and they will be able, if they wish, to add partners in order to constitute an extensive offer by the end of 2023. The offers
will be analyzed in 2024.

Quoted for their part in the French press as being interested, the International Football Federation (Fifa) denied and UEFA did not comment.

"It's a bit of a game of liar poker," one of the players in the case summed up to AFP, no one wanting to speak officially on the subject. "The State, he added, opened the subject of the sale so as not to have its arm twisted on the concession."