“We can no longer take this treatment”: the anger of the ultras still banned from traveling for OM-PSG

The Ultras Paris Collective is angry and makes it known. The PSG supporters group published a scathing statement on its social networks a few hours after the Interior Ministry Gérald Darmanin banned the travel of Parisian supporters to Marseille for the clasico on Sunday March 31 at the end of the 27th day of the League 1.

“Almost 15 long years that we, supporters of Paris Saint-Germain, have been banned from traveling to Marseille. Since October 24, 2009, our freedom to come and go has been violated and our country is incapable of organizing a trip of supporters for the classico of the championship…” denounces the CUP.

“We no longer support this discriminatory treatment of football fans, any more than we like the sanitized atmosphere of stadiums without opposing fans,” continues the Parisian group.

In its press release, the Ultras Paris Collective denounces more generally the numerous travel bans on all supporters of all clubs in France. “All year round, French supporters experience dozens of travel bans or restrictions. Each season, the LFP disciplinary commission collectively punishes unruly supporters and closes entire stadiums or popular stands,” he regrets.

“Without fans, football is nothing”

The CUP concludes by indirectly addressing decision-makers: “We can no longer stand this treatment, it is high time that the State, the prefectures and the football authorities assume their responsibilities and, like our Italian, German or English neighbors are finally able to manage the travel of supporters.”

In October 2023, Gérard Darmanin and Amélie Oudéa-Castera expressed the wish to limit the prefectural orders banning the movement of supporters. Two months later, the Minister of Sports changed her mind following the tragic death of a Nantes supporter on the sidelines of Nantes-Nice.

Clasicos are very often subject to travel bans. Since February 2016, 14 of the 17 meetings between OM and PSG (excluding the Covid period) have been affected by an order from the Ministry of the Interior. The last ten consecutive Clasicos have been played without supporters of both clubs in the same stadium.

As the CUP recalls in its press release, Marseille supporters were also banned from going to the Parc des Princes for the first leg last September (4-0).

Already last year, the CUP had displayed a banner to denounce this ban which had become almost systematic: “14 years without going to Marseille… Are we condemned to life in prison? »

Since 2016, the Collectif Ultras Paris group has returned to the Auteuil bend in the Parc des Princes after five years of absence due to the Leproux plan.