2023-11-17 19:36:12
And the winner of the 2023 Champions Trophy is… Paris. We are obviously not talking about the result of the match between PSG and Toulouse, scheduled for January 3, but about the place where the traditional meeting between the French champion and the winner of the Coupe de France will be played.
PSG wanted to play at the Parc des Princes and they would have won their case from the Professional Football League (LFP). There were two other options for this prestige match. Play it at the Toulouse Stadium and its 33,000 seats. This was obviously the option favored by the Haut-Garonne club.
There also remained the solution which was, initially, the preference of the LFP: continuing the tradition which has been running since 2009 of playing the match abroad (with the exception of the 2021 edition between Paris and OM (2- 1) played in Lens due to Covid). The Democratic Republic of Congo had proposed the candidacy of Kinshasa. It was initially rejected because the Martyrs of Pentecost stadium, which can accommodate 80,000 people, has a synthetic turf.
But the promoters of the relocation of the meeting to Africa had promised the installation of a hybrid field. But this was not enough in the face of the fears of Parisian leaders who want to focus the start of the calendar year on recovery. There is no question for them of imposing on their troops a long plane journey coupled with a probable thermal difference with France (it is on average 25 degrees in January in Kinshasa).
PSG was quite firm on this matter with the LFP. The promoters of Kinshasa’s candidacy were warned this Friday that the match would not take place in their country. They should nevertheless submit a new application for the 2024 Champions Trophy which should be played at the beginning of August.
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