Paris St. Germaine to be sold to investor group

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Television broadcaster Canal Plus will annouce that the Ligue 1 club would be sold for EUR 41 million to an investment group led by former Lille presiden Luc Dayan and US investment fund Colony Capital, according to French newspaper Le Parisien.

“It’s the first French club bought by investors but I can bet it's not the last,” Sebastien Bazin, Colony Capital's chairman in Europe, told a news conference.

Canal Plus bought the club 15 years ago and has invested heavily in the club. However, the club has not won a league title since 1994 and several weeks ago Canal Plus put a London-based law firm in charge of finding new owners. Since becoming Canal Plus chief executive in 2002, Bertrand Meheut repeatedly has said that owning a football club was not the company’s core business.

Canal Plus bought the TV rights fees for Ligue 1 in 2004 for a record fee of EUR 600 million per year until the end of the 2007 season.

Dayan, 47, was joint president of Lille alongside Francis Graille. Together they took the team from the Second Division to the UEFA Champions League. Former Brazil captain Rai is reported to be appointed as sports director in the new regime and former PSG director Alain Cayzac will take over for President Pierre Blayau.