How Lens embraced underdog status to become PSG's title rivals
"We would have played just once over a month. In terms of the team's performance and fitness, organising a fixture became a necessity," the club executive highlights. Proceeds from the match will go to Reporters Without Borders as the club lends its support to Christophe Gleizes , the French football journalist who is currently imprisoned in Algeria.
Gleizes was handed a seven-year sentence in December for "glorifying terrorism" after travelling to the country to write about football club JS Kabylie. The sentence was roundly condemned in France, not least in football circles. "We were one of the first clubs that signed the petition calling for his release," adds Parrot, a graduate of the same Parisian institute as Gleizes, who first joined Lens as part of the communications team.
Parrot, 40, is now one of three people overseeing the day-to-day running of the club, along with sporting director Jean-Louis Leca and head coach Pierre Sage. Like the former goalkeeper Leca, Parrot was promoted to the role in May of last year. Boss Pierre Sage joined Lens last summer.
They currently sit second in Ligue 1, four points behind PSG Sage, who broke on to the top-flight scene two seasons ago when he led Lyon's spectacular recovery from the relegation zone to European football, joined a few months later. "The three of us have a weekly meeting," Parrot explains. "Pierre defines the profiles he needs, and Jean-Louis chooses the players along with the scouting team.
" Lens are, in the general director's words, one of the "challenger clubs", operating with only the 10th-highest wage bill in the league. After several spells in the second tier, the 1998 league champions returned to the forefront of French football three years ago when they pushed PSG to within one point in the title race. Despite recent success budget constraints remain, not least in the wake of successive broadcast deal collapses which have financially stunted French football.