The day before our interview, Pierre Ferracci's press secretary informed him of three requests. Two for streaming TV channels, one for a public service radio station. He would have accepted the third, but not the time.
These days, the sixties is often invited to comment on the news. Not that of the Paris Football Club (PFC), of which it is the majority shareholder, and which, far behind Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG), plays in the second national division (Ligue 2), currently ranked second to last position and therefore relegable.
It is rather to evoke the social movement against pension reform that Pierre Ferracci is asked. He also, and above all, heads the Alpha consulting group, which specializes in social relations, both with works councils and with management.
If he received The world, that's to talk about everything. “A football club is a much more complicated business to manage than the Alpha group. More irrational. " The manager receives in his vast office, with adjoining meeting room. A quarter of an hour's walk from the Charléty stadium in the 13th arrondissement, where Paris FC plays.
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Stay in Ligue 2
An enclosure with athletics track, football field … and often vacant bleachers: 2,051 spectators on average on 18,528 places, worst influx of the division for the current season. It must be said that there has been a somewhat bulky neighbor for five decades now.
Even more since 2011 and the takeover of PSG by the sovereign investment fund from Qatar, further widening the already large gap with the PFC. "We have a country in front of us that has decided to invest in football to communicate politically. No one can fight. "
Estimated budget of the defending champion of France: 637 million euros. Budget of the current penultimate of Ligue 2 (19th out of 20): 14.5 million euros. Including funds from Pierre Ferracci, which he refuses to quantify. "I’m investing a lot, but I’m very discreet about it. I announced at the start of the season that, in three or four years, we should be in Ligue 1. "
For the current season, which he admits "Not very good" – to put it mildly – it will be a question of staying in the second division. The team, which has not won since November 22, is entering a series of games that could help it break free from the red zone: it receives Rodez (14th) Friday, January 24, and will then face Niort (18th), Ajaccio (4th) and Chambly (13th) by February 7.
Open up capital
Pierre Ferracci would also like to open the club's capital to others. With "A hobby, a goal" : "I consider that the club should have capitalist foundations of control on a regional, national and European basis. " In other words, that the club should not be sold to shareholders from Qatar (PSG), the United States (Olympique de Marseille) or China (Olympique lyonnais).
The manager of Paris FC says he has received various offers from investors "United States, China and the Gulf". The thing could surprise, considering the low exposure of his club. "French football is very economically devalued compared to others, it can also attract investors. The Parisian dimension too. We have a beautiful name. " And above all an appreciable reputation as a training club.
In 2012, Pierre Ferracci said no to the Luxembourg investment fund Centuria Capital, linked to Qatari funds (and whose name will appear later in the montage of the Bygmalion case). Leaves to get angry with Guy Cotret, until then president of Paris FC and co-shareholder, who ended up resigning and giving him his place.
Paris FC after failure of Red Star takeover
However, it was this same Cotret, a few years earlier, who had gone to look for Ferracci to offer to come to Paris FC as administrator of the association (2006). The two men had one thing in common: each on their side, they had failed in their attempt to take over the Red Star.
Pierre Ferracci concedes: "Given my profile as a citizen, I saw myself more at Red Star, the club of the reds, than at Paris FC. " With the Alpha group, the leader had already worked for a mission on the finances of the Parisian suburban club, on order of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis and the town hall of Saint-Ouen, then communist.
Citizen Pierre Ferracci is sometimes torn apart. His father, Albert, a former schoolteacher and resistance fighter, was a figure of the Communist Party in Corsica. Her son, Marc, was the witness to Emmanuel Macron's marriage (and vice versa) and works as a special adviser to the Ministry of Labor: the two former classmates met at the ENA.
Pierre Ferracci concedes: " I can see very well that from time to time certain competitors use my relations with Macron to destabilize me a little. No problem. I assume the friendly relationship, I assume the political disagreements. "
The former member of the French Communist Party (PCF) voted François Hollande in the first round in 2012. Then Emmanuel Macron in 2017, even if he declared himself "Neither left nor right" during the campaign.
"I am one of the leftist people who is quite disappointed today"
Whatever we think, he keeps telling himself "Very clearly on the left". "I am one of the people on the left who trusted him, and I am one of the people on the left who is quite disappointed today. I see very clearly, like everyone else, that the "at the same time" is rather on the right. "
On the pension reform project: "The criticisms are well-founded, there is a large dose of amateurism in the way the social partners have been bypassed. " Continued criticism: "I am for a much more rigorous and radical treatment of the arduousness of certain trades and that people can leave well in advance when they are worn out by work: that the criterion of arduousness of the one holding a jackhammer is not taken into account, it's mind boggling. "
The question arises less, according to him, for the profession of football coach: René Girard, appointed during the season to try to save Paris FC in Ligue 2, is 65 years old. Three fewer than Pierre Ferracci, who spent three decades from the PCF to the PFC.
