CDF – De Zerbi’s rant after the ASSE match

Once again, the match between AS Saint-Étienne and Olympique de Marseille in the Coupe de France took place without visiting supporters. An unfortunate situation which unfortunately becomes a habit.

At the end of the press conference, Roberto DeZerbi had a big rant over the decision to once again ban the travel of Marseille supporters to Saint-Étienne: “Just for a moment, I would just like to clarify, obviously I'm Italian so I don't want to comment too much on French football or French politics, even less, but I find it really sad and a shame that our supporters aren't there yet on the move and this is almost all the time. I speak on behalf of myself but also on behalf of the players. I came here to work at OM, to be proud of our colors, proud to be able to play at the Vélodrome in front of our supporters and we would like to be able to do the same thing away but there have been too many matches where this was not possible, or that was not the case. Really, playing without them is a real shame for us and we wanted to highlight it, both the players and myself. Even if it remains only our opinion, it is important that they can be present with us.”

To protest against this umpteenth repressive decision taken by the Prefecture of the Loire and the Ministry of the Interior, the Marseillais decided to still make the trip to Saint-Étienne in the early morning, notably displaying a banner: “Stop the bans“.