The stadium opened in 1938 and was designed by French architect
Bernard Zehrfuss. In
May 1968, Charléty made the news for a nonsporting event: on 27 May, the meeting of the
Union Nationale des Étudiants de France, one of the most important of the protests of that month, took place, attracting between 30,000 and 50,000 people. The crowd, led by
Pierre Mendès-France and
Michel Rocard, shouted "''Ce n'est qu'un début, continuons le combat!''" ("This is only the beginning; let's keep up the fight!"). The stadium has hosted many matches during various
Rugby League World Cups, and was the home of
Paris Saint Germain Rugby League for the
1996 and
1997 seasons of
Super League. The stadium has an athletic track that hosted the 1994 and 2002
IAAF Grand Prix Final and the
2003 European Youth Summer Olympic Festival. The stadium was scheduled to host the
2020 European Athletics Championships but that event was cancelled because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. It served as the temporary home for the
Stade Français rugby union club, starting in
2010–11 and running through 2012–13, while that club was building a completely new stadium at the site of its traditional home,
Stade Jean-Bouin. It also hosted a Stade Français home match in the Paris
derby with
Racing Métro in the
2009–10 season. In 2025,
Paris FC left the Stade Charléty for the
Stade Jean-Bouin. The
club's women's team still use it for their European fixtures. == Arena ==