PSG Win the Champions League - But Forget Who They're Really For 🏆
The one where I take a tour behind the scenes
Warning: As an Arsenal fan, this is going to hurt.
Like lots of football fans, I watched on Saturday night as Paris St. Germain won their first Champions League title, taking apart a frankly terrible Inter Milan side with a mix of youth, exuberance, and expert coaching. Putting aside for a moment that PSG’s wage bill is double Inter’s entire annual revenue and they play in a league so poor that they can rest players every weekend, it was still an exciting display, and one which their fans deserve.
I say that, because the PSG fans really do bring the noise. From an hour before kickoff, the stadium was filled with their songs and chants, non-stop until the final whistle of the match. Huge motifs (banners) were unveiled throughout, including a heart-wrenching one for their manager, Luis Enrique, in tribute to his daughter who has passed away at just nine years old. They really are the heartbeat of the club.
But you wouldn’t know that if you were to visit their stadium. And I think there’s a lot that organisations can learn from the way PSG chooses to focus on it’s investors over it’s supporters.
On holiday in Paris, I thought I’d take my kids to do the stadium tour (with some trepidation, I must admit, fearful of the requests to buy shirts from a club that wasn’t in red and white). I see football as so important to the culture of many countries and cities, and going to visit the grounds is a great way to connect with that.
The PSG stadium tour was strange, though.
As you walk in, you’re taken through the ‘Executive’ entrance, up some beautifully pristine escalators, past some wonderful artwork.
The first stop is what I can only describe as the Executive Concourse. Large suites, inside the stadium, for Qatari Airways and other exclusive sponsors. Champagne fridges, hi-spec televisions, perfectly crafted tables and chairs to sit on.
Next, up to the Directors lounge, seeing where chefs prepare and serve fresh food on match days, formal table settings for fine-dining, the most comfortable seats with the best views over the pitch.
Then down to the changing room, and finally up to the Players’ Boxes, each one named for that player and their guests. Donnarumma. Marquinhos. Dembélé.
As you head down the steps to leave, you walk past a stairwell near where the ‘normal’ fans would sit. And you catch a glimpse of the most amazing street art. The grey, stone walls of the stadium decorated with paintings of fans, of former players, of great moments in the history of the club.
It reminded me of a recent trip to watch Lyon, where the fans unveiled a huge banner of a long-standing supporter who’d recently passed away, and sang his name for the first few minutes of the match.
These are the stories I want to hear, the fabric of the football team woven together over seasons and generations. This is the humanity behind the corporate facade presented during the tour and around the world. This is the real club, the people that were there long before and will be there long after the current owners and investors pack up and leave.
And what’s this got to do with customer experience?
Well, I wonder how often this is the case in every other company, too. The priority is the investors who come and go, not the customers - or colleagues - who’ve been there for years and years.
Decisions are made to impress the shareholders, create good PR, secure investment, rather than to make things better for customers.
And leaders forget is that the real reason they exist is because of the people they were set up to serve, the people that come back week-in, week-out, the people who make money for them, not for the people who want to make money from them.
As for those PSG fans, their hour-long football chant build up was broken just before kick off by the presence of Linkin Park, attempting to ‘Superbowl’ the final with a pre-match concert. Did the fans want it? Absolute not. but I guess it made it a spectacle for those with less interest in the actual football.
Like every other company, though, UEFA and PSG would do well to make sure they keep their most important audience in mind.