A PARIS REVOLUTION

FRENCH FOOTBALL EXPERT KEVIN QUIGAGNE REPORTS ON HOW PARIS FC ARE BRINGING NEW LIFE TO FOOTBALL IN THE CAPITAL

- 

BY DRAWING 1-1 against Martigues on Friday, May 2, Paris FC sealed their promotion to Ligue 1. For the first time since 1990, Paris has two clubs in the top flight this season.

As the achievements of Paris St-Germain in 2025 have gone global, they've also highlighted the following idiosyncrasy: the French capital has been a one-club city.

The Greater Paris region boasts a population of 12 million but for over three decades the local professional football scene has been in dire need of a kick.

At long last, PSG have a local rival and a derby has emerged from nowhere. But a proper old-fashioned football enmity it ain't.

For this is no ordinary or fierce rivalry, as PSG were spawned out of no other than Paris FC, which last plied its trade in the First Division 46 years ago.

The history of the two clubs is intimately entwined and Paris FC's chaotic journey is the ultimate story of an improbable renaissance.

In 1969, in order to remedy the jarring absence of top flight football in Paris where rugby had become the dominant spectator sport (not least thanks to the sizeable southern diaspora), the French Federation launched a media campaign to help birth Paris FC against a backdrop of a national football crisis. It was a resounding success as 18,000 supporter-members part financed its foundation, enabling Paris FC to sign some high-profile names.

A year later, Paris FC merged with Stade Saint-Germain, which was based outside of Paris and newly promoted to the second tier, to form Paris Saint-Germain FC.

In 1971, PSG won promotion to the top flight, but after a fallout with its City of Paris sponsor over the use of the newly-built and municipality-owned Parc des Princes, the Paris FC entity seceded from the Paris Saint-Germain FC in May 1972.