As expected, Lens supporters are banned from traveling to Paris on Saturday evening of the decisive match of the 34th day of Ligue 1 for the PSG title, according to a decree from the Ministry of the Interior published on Friday. The ministry stresses that “relations between supporters of RC Lens and PSG have been marked by animosity since the deployment on March 29, 2008, at the Stade de France, of a banner insulting the inhabitants of northern France. “.
During the Coupe de la Ligue final between the Parisian club and Lens that year, PSG supporters displayed a banner at the Parc des Princes “Paedophiles, unemployed, consanguineous: welcome to the Ch’tis”…
Listing a series of incidents since between supporters of the two clubs, the last of which on May 1, 2021, when the RC Lens bus had been tagged overnight by PSG supporters, the ministry decided that “individual or collective travel , by any means, of any person claiming the status of supporter of the Racing Club de Lens or behaving as such is prohibited between the communes of the department of Pas-de-Calais, on the one hand, and the communes of the region of Île-de-France, on the other hand”.
On Tuesday, RC Lens had anticipated the foreseeable decision and published a press release to protest: “After the coercive measures of the same type, taken on Saturday April 16 for the Lille-Lens meeting, which obviously did not prevent several thousand supporters from hear their voice, it would be a new decision against the freedom of movement of our supporters. (…) The club intends to underline a dangerous slippage and an incomprehensible systematization of these measures while no incident has been observed this season on all the movements of the Lensois public. (…) The Sang et Or supporters move everywhere massively. It seems, under these conditions, meaningless not to consider, at least, a concerted and secure arrival for the club’s followers. Racing, which defends a fervent and popular football, calls on the authorities to stem this trivialization of the ban. »
Note that PSG supporters had also been deprived of the first leg at Bollaert, in December 2021, due to “serious risks to the safety of persons and property”. With 15 points ahead of his runner-up, Olympique de Marseille, the announced coronation of PSG has a good chance of taking place this Saturday, unless Franck Haise’s team wins on the ground of the Parisians.
After beating Angers (3-0) on Wednesday for the 33rd day, PSG only needed one point to win a historic tenth title of champion of France.
