It’s a story about football and pastis that is making waves. The partnership between Pernod Ricard and the Paris Saint-Germain football club is not going down well with Marseille fans.
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With the establishment of the hashtag BoycottRicard and calls to turn away from the famous pastis brand, the agreement that the Pernod Ricard group signed with PSG on Monday, September 2, 2024, is planned for four years, and covers both the PSG men’s and women’s teams, as well as handball. Concretely, it provides for Pernod Ricard to become “the club’s sole supplier of champagne and spirits, with dedicated rights, the ability to host events“.
But this partnership will be expressed mainly abroad, in Brazil, the United States, China, South Korea, where PSG is very well known. It will not take shape in France.
In France, the Évin law prohibits alcohol groups from sponsoring sports clubs or advertising in stadiums. In fact, we won’t see any PSG players wearing Pernod Ricard jerseys.
On the other hand, the Pernod Ricard group, which includes more than 200 brands of whisky, scotch, and champagne, will be able to partner with PSG during events abroad, for example, during evenings organized in PSG stores in New York. The fact remains that in Marseille, this agreement is experienced as a betrayal, the affair taking on Marseille proportions.
The Ricard brand is historically linked to the city, thanks to the famous Pastis, an aniseed drink created in 1932 by a local boy, Paul Ricard. The entrepreneur died in 1997, but the headquarters of Pernod Ricard France remained in the Phocaean city. Today, the group, which has 19,000 employees worldwide, including 3,000 in France, is experiencing a slight decline in its turnover. Hence this agreement with PSG to boost its sales abroad, and to convey, through sport, a festive and convivial image.
This is not the first time that Pernod Ricard signs this type of contract, it has already done so with the English Football Association and the Arsenal club. A spokesperson for Pernod Ricard said he was very surprised by the uproar caused by this affair in France, but not enough to call into question the alliance with the famous Parisian club.