PARIS (AP) - For the first time in 35 years, two Paris-based soccer clubs will play in France's top division.

The Paris Football Club, which was recently acquired by France's wealthiest family, will be promoted to Topflight and will join Qatar-funded Paris Saint-Germain next season as the City of Light's football scene undergoes a major makeover.

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Paris FC was promoted to Ligue 1, ending the French anomaly, with only one major football team able to be in the capital. The Associated Press explores the reasons why Paris lacks top clubs.

Paris Exception

When fans visit some European cities, they choose which game to watch. Although there are seven London clubs in the Premier League this season, Paris has only one side: PSG.

This is a rare thing in European football matches, with big cities like Madrid, Rome, Barcelona, ​​Milan and even Manchester and Lisbon usually having two high-end clubs.

"There is a paradox. We have a very popular sport that produces great footballers, but there is no raising great clubs in Paris at this time," Paul Dietschy, a sports history researcher, told the Associated Press. "The Saint-Denis region of the Seine River (north of Paris) is one of the main scouting grounds for top European clubs. Meanwhile, Paris has never produced a club with lasting influence with major European cities like Madrid, London, Barcelona or Manchester."

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Matra Racing Flops

This is not the first time an ambitious billionaire has invested in a Paris club.

Before the Arnault family, the late French media Jean-Luc Lagardère tried to restore the fate of the former greatest team, Racing Club. In the 1980s, Lagardère launched Matra Racing, signing big players such as Uruguayan star Enzo Francescoli, German dribbling ace Pierre Littbarski, French midfielder Luis Fernandez and spectacular goalkeeper Pascal Olmeta tried to compete with PSG.

It threatened to work, but in the end, Matra struggled to attract fans without major results, and Lagardère chose a bad adventure after just a few years.

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In the early 20th century, many Paris teams gradually sank from their perspective. The Red Star Cluster, which returns to the second division, still has a strong working-class fan base, but its chaotic features and lack of stability have kept the club in shadow over the past 50 years.

Although there are few large clubs, the national team is strong

The lack of top clubs in Paris and across the country can find its roots in the complex relationship between France and football.

First, French football started slowly. Although the FA Cup first played football in 1871, it was not until the 1930s and 1940s that football became the number one sport in France. Thanks to the Tour de France, cycling has attracted audiences before.

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"From the beginning of World War II, French capitalism and football have been divorced," Dietschy said. "With nationalization, there are fewer large companies supporting football clubs."

Another factor, he added, was the large amount of sports in Paris, coupled with the political situation in the working-class communities in the urban suburbs.

"There are many different kinds of entertainment in Paris. The main rival of football is cycling. There is boxing. Football is just another form of entertainment and does not produce a strong identity," Dietschy said. "In the suburbs of the Communist Party, the idea of ​​developing a Soviet-inspired, streaming industry sporting contrary to the development of professional clubs."

PSG takes away competitors in domestic scenarios

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Since QSI, a supporter of Katari, has taken over the club, PSG has struggled traditionally to attract celebrity names, lacking significant financial influence and lag behind paychecks. Monaco won the championship with young Kylian Mbappé in 2017 and Lille won the odds in 2021.

This makes it easier for Ligue 1 to invest in for outsiders. The talent is already there.

France’s outstanding football academy is arguably the best football academy in the world, and together with Brazil and Spain, it has produced veritable talent production lines such as the 2022 Ballon d'Or Winner Karim Benzema (Lyon) and Mbappé.

Therefore, the richness of French football is still more fixed on the grassroots than its results. Only Marseille won the Champions League in 1993, Monaco, Monaco and Reims decades ago won the minority finals.

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This did not affect the French Academy, thanks to their vast reconnaissance network, which discovered young talents in Europe and beyond. Monaco and Lyon, for example, are good at discovering players in South America. Recently, the likes of Arsenal’s William Saliba and Chelsea’s Wesley Fofana were getting a high-profile Premier League move through St. Tyne’s Academy.

A football country is less angry at its club

Despite the good achievements of French football, with more than 2 million people affiliated with the club, interest in Ligue 1 remains fickle, while league officials work hard to sell its television rights. France is not like England, where there is a strong enthusiasm for football clubs and is spread throughout the society of every class.

Even though Les Bleus won four major trophys and finished second in three more, this didn't have a lasting effect at home. Except for a few teams, such as Marseille, St. Tyne, Strasbourg or the lens, they all have loyal supporters and their interest in club football remains mediocre.

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There is a sport in France every day, but the story of football is still scarce in the General Press Press, unless it is an established star like Mbappé. By contrast, the British media has exhausted 10 pages of sports in several national daily newspapers, with large chunks dedicated to football.

Other places in Spain are Marca and Mundo deportivo; Italy has the famous La Gazzetta Dello Sport, Tuttosport and Corriere Dello Sport.

Short high and major low

However, in the 1980s and 1990s, when Marseille played in Verve and Style, there was a lot of interest in the French League. Stars like Rudi Voeller, Chris Waddle, Chris Waddle, Rai and George Weah join a league where the competition between Marseille and the newly confident PSG is relentlessly promoted by the club's owners: Bernard Tapie of Marseille and Pay TV Channel Cannal Plus of PSG.

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Then there was the 1995 Bosman ruling, which seriously hurt the French club.

The end of the limit on the number of foreign players in the club has led to the large-scale record of French talent that has produced more prestigious and crucially - a high-paying league. Over the past decade, it took several decades for the French club to reappear with a major spending force: PSG.

Can Football Club Paris perform well under Arnault’s luxury group?

The men's team of Football Club Paris was founded in 1969 and has not achieved any great success.

The Arnault family, owner of the LVMH luxury empire, plans to leverage the expertise of Jürgen Klopp, as part of an ambitious project to turn the Paris FC into a French football force. The family’s takeover was the ship’s energy drink giant Red Bull as a minority stakeholder. Former Liverpool manager Klopp joined Red Bull as global football leader.

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Arnault describes the project as a long-term effort to enhance the men’s and women’s teams at Football Paris to achieve top success.

Dietschy said: "The business of Football Club in Paris can work because Princes and Princes will never have seats to see PSG. This will be the second offer, although it is a team with no real history, so everything has to be created. So why not change any more, everything has changed in the last 25 years. Now, it's a luxury for football and luxury, they may take over luxury, they may take over luxury.

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