Was PSG President Fired for Going After Man City’s Sugardaddies?

By: Laurie | January 20th, 2009

Paris St. Gemain’s president, Charles Villeneuve, is apparently without a job after a bizarre string of events that allegedly involved surreptitious contacts with Man City’s owners in an attempt to bring the club a cash infusion.

According to a couple of sources, Villeneuve went to England last week to meet with the current owners of Man City, and according to one source came home with a plan for the Qatarians to become majority shareholders.

News item in The Mirror, from before the blow-up:

Manchester City’s escalating profile has brought them the stunning opportunity to turn French giants Paris St Germain into a feeder club. Sunday Mirror Sport can reveal that PSG president Charles Villeneuve travelled to Manchester last week to talk to City about the prospect of them making a major investment into his club.

Villeneuve is looking at how hecan raise funds to challenge Lyon’s dominance of French football and hoped mega-rich City would be interested in handing over some of their wealth. In return, the Blues wouldbe given first refusal on any of PSG’s players.

Only problem was that Villeneuve didn’t bother to get permission from the current owners.

The club is denying that this part of it happened, but something certainly got the current owners’ knickers in a twist.

In addition, Villeneuve, upon his return, sent a nasty letter to all of his fellow board members seeking more power for himself and changes in the way the club is run. This caused all of the other board members to announce their resignations, which caused Sebastien Bazin, the rep for the current majority shareholders, Colony Capital, to call an emergency meeting.

The end result? Buh-bye Villeneuve.

Is that the end of the story? Of course not:

Villeneuve, meanwhile, refused to be bowed by the board’s condemnation. “I’m keeping calm and I will consult my lawyers,” he said on Sunday night. “I find it very surprising that this has happened. I only asked for the right to exercise my powers.”

Because, as always, where there is PSG, there has to be drama.

For more on PSG, check out PSG Offside.