• Antoine Arnault, son of LVMH CEO and chairman Bernard Arnault, told CNBC that the investment in the second-tier club was about “emotions” rather than finances.
• The team is set to gain further momentum with the recent appointment of Jürgen Klopp, who led English club Liverpool to Premier League success, as Red Bull’s global head of football.
• Klopp is expected to work with Arnault in an advisory role.

The French billionaire Arnault family, owner of the luxury group LVMH and one of the richest dynasties on the planet, is preparing to secure a majority stake in minor league football club Paris FC – but sees any sporting turnaround as a long-term goal.

Antoine Arnault, son of LVMH CEO and chairman Bernard Arnault, told CNBC that investing in the second-tier club was about “emotions” rather than finances; as it seeks to replicate the sporting success that Red Bull achieved in its own acquisitions of a German football club Leipzig and Salzburg in Austria.

The Arnaults will partner with Red Bull in the Paris FC project, with family holding company Agache taking an initial 52% stake, according to the Associated Press, while the energy drinks giant is acquiring 11%.

Arnault said that compared to other clubs, his family had identified more “interest and value creation than others, not only on the sporting side, but also on the brand side, which was Paris FC.” .

“There is an anomaly in French football and in Parisian football, it is probably the only big city in Europe with just one big football club. And Paris FC already has infrastructure, already has a great team, already has a great story, but just needs, financially, a little stronger shareholder to push it to the next level,” Arnault told CNBC’s Charlotte Reed.

Compared to Qatari titans Paris Saint-Germain, who have dominated French domestic football for decades, attracting world-class stars and competing in international tournaments, Paris FC is a little-known club that last played in the top league in the 1970s.

Asked by CNBC if he saw Paris FC as a potential challenger, Arnault replied: “It would be very immodest of us, even to compare ourselves to Paris Saint-Germain. The first objective is to enter Ligue 1 and to go up, then on a large scale, then to build a beautiful club with good values ​​that our fans love and that our fans respect and want to come back to the next game.”

“Not having the pressure of time to succeed is something very important, I think, to make the right decisions and, yes, take a little pressure off the shoulders of players who are under a lot of traditional sporting stress, which is positive, but sometimes also, with a big shareholder like this, negative,” he said.

“We are not an investment fund. We are not asking them to win the Champions League in three, five, ten years, just to do their best and give everything on the pitch.”

The team is set to gain further momentum with the recent appointment of Jürgen Klopp, who led English club Liverpool to Premier League success, as Red Bull’s global head of football. Klopp is expected to work with Arnault in an advisory role.

Wealthy families and businesses have long viewed top sports teams as attractive acquisitions, often as a so-called “trophy asset” or brand-building opportunities rather than as a significant source of revenue given the Huge costs involved.

Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney since 2020 have spearheaded a somewhat reverse strategy, purchasing a small, struggling Welsh club, Wrexham AFC – then in the fifth tier of English football – and creating a globally successful documentary about their efforts to turn around its fortunes and progress through the leagues.

But the Arnault family’s acquisition draws more comparisons with those of Red Bull, whose investments propelled Leipzig and Salzberg into the national elite and gave them Red Bull-branded arenas – although angered fans of the rival clubs in the process.

Arnault told CNBC that if her family wanted a “trophy,” they would have looked elsewhere.

“What we want to do is build a story of resilience, build a story of hard work with great values,” he said.