Since the return of the ultras to the Parc des Princes, in 2016, the Parisian club hired several police officers, some of whom worked with ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.
by Christophe Ayad and Rémi Dupré
The Malik Nait-Liman affair, this ex-agent of the central Directorate of Internal Intelligence (DCRI, ex-DGSI) hired by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in 2018 and indicted in the case of ‘Espionage which shakes the institution, highlighted the fort of the leaders of the capital’s club for the police sector. To date, four former police officers are working in the PSG security department.
The oldest employee is Thierry Haring, retired from the police, who officiates as public security and players. He was recruited by the club before his acquisition in 2011 by the Qatar Sports Investments fund. A former national division of fighting hooliganism, Jérôme Gaston, resigned to join PSG, in 2021, as responsible for supporter relations.
To oversee the club’s security management, Parisian leaders set their sights, in April 2018, on a experienced “big cop”, broken with delicate missions: the prefect on availability Michel Besnard, 58 years old. After having climbed the levels of the police and the administration for three decades, Mr. Besnard succeeded PSG at Jean-Philippe d’Hallivillée (2006-2017), one of the craftsmen of the ouster of the ultra supporters of the Parc des Princes, in 2010.
“Recruitment sector”
m. Besnard was not the first choice of Parisian leaders. The latter would have preferred to recruit Laurent Simonin, chief of staff to the management of public order and traffic at the Paris police headquarters, sentenced, in 2021, to three years in prison suspended in the case Benalla. But his request for availability was rejected, in November 2017, by the Public Service Ethics Commission.
m. Besnard has the distinction of being a relative of the former President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy. The latter, historic supporter of Paris Saint-Germain, friend of its president Qatari Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, is at the center of the judicial information opened, in 2019, by the national financial prosecutor’s office on the allocation of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
From 2007 to 2012, under the mandate of Mr. Sarkozy, Mr. Besnard held the position of director of the security group of the Presidency of the Republic before supervising the security of Euro 2016 in France. “Mr. Sarkozy did not intervene in the recruitment of Mr. Besnard,” said PSG while his “Mr. Security” was already responsible for his protection, during his visit to Beauvau, in the early 2000s. ” There has been a phenomenon of reclassification of the close security of Sarko, “said a relative of the file.
You have 57.57% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.