There is unrest at Paris Saint-Germain. Not only have fans witnessed the dethroning of their favourites as French champions to Monaco, certain hardcore elements of the support believe that owners Qatar Sports Investment are stripping the club of its identity.
Crest, stadium, colours and name are the four key identifying factors of any side to its most fervent supporters. PSG fans saw their badge tampered with in 2013, as the owners elected to drop the cradle of Louis XIV, a symbol that had been present since 1972, which sat under the Eiffel Tower. This offered a link back to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, one of the two clubs that was swallowed to form the Parisian giants and, therefore, continues to hold symbolic importance for many supporters.
The rift, however, between the club’s long-standing fanbase and QSI, who took over in 2011, continue to grow, despite unprecedented success on the field – domestically, at least. The global market means that many of the club’s previous fans have been chased away by international demands, and though a ban on ultras has been loosened in light of a poor atmosphere at the Parc des Princes, these supporters did little to ingratiate themselves to the board when significant damage was done to Lyon’s Parc OL during the Coupe de la Ligue final.
Now, however, another of the great pillars of the club has been altered. PSG’s shirt, designed by Daniel Hechter, a former president of the club and one of the city’s notable couturiers, has been altered away from what is deemed suitable by fans.
Again Saint-Germain-en-Laye has been targeted, with the white that represented the commune where PSG’s training base is located stripped from the shirt. Instead, more prominence has been given to what some fans have described as a ‘Bordeaux blue’ and ‘Qatar red’.
This is not, however, the first time that PSG have had trouble over their colours, with the steady move away from the ‘Hechter shirt’, which was based around the design of Ajax’s, having infuriated fans for almost a decade.
“Undoubtedly one of few professional football shirts to have been designed by a great fashion designer, the jersey of our club - unique among 1000s of others - is blue with a red central band framed by white edgings. This is PARIS SAINT-GERMAIN: in France or in Europe, it is by this shirt that we are identified,” a group of fans argued in 2009.
This was a symbol of the first truly great PSG sides of the 1990s, the one that topped UEFA’s club coefficient for one year and reached five successive semi-finals in Europe. As the fans note, what the jersey represented was as important as its composition – and that was certainly the case for its designer.
“For me, a stadium is the greatest theatre in the world,” Hechter said in Thibaud Laport’s 2014 book ‘Ici c’est Paris’. “This is where the people are more than spectators. So I wanted to designed something aesthetic that would work like an opera.”
The show must go on, and indeed it does, but the fashion designer’s idea – and the romanticism of the fans – has been denied.
The ‘Hechter design’ is no longer in fashion, the white of the French royalty has been reduced to a thin band around the neck.
On social media, supporters have suggested that their favourites will be running around like 10 versions of Spiderman, while others have pointed out another resemblance: “If this is the start of the ‘Aston Villa Project’, it really does not feel good for the future. Will Remi Garde called to replace Emery during the summer?”
Meanwhile, comedian Michael Youn spoke for many supporters when he took to Twitter to fume: “Don’t you want, at least once, to give us a jersey that resembles a ‘Hechter design?! Our colours are what?! Is it so complicated?”
Fans no longer feel they are supporting their team; instead, it is if their club is in the midst of a rebranding process, metamorphosing away from one that represented the Paris region to one more indistinct, more sterile, less PSG.
But the owners have little need to care: the jersey will continue to sell well. It would be remarkable if the Parisians were to be unseated from their status as shifting the most strips in France, even with Marseille set to spend big and Monaco, with their own distinctive colours, designed famously by Princess Grace, now domestic champions.
And as a worldwide brand PSG continue to grow too – at last count, made in October 2016, only nine clubs sold more shirts in the calendar year.
Distinctive or not, the Parisians continue to grow as a world brand, but at the expense of their local fans. The board have shown a renewed desire to get the Parc rocking as it once did during the club’s 1990s heyday, but in further alienating their core support, they are not going the right way about it.
