Paris SG has promised upstream control of tifos “to guarantee the absence of messages of a political nature”, AFP learned on Friday after a meeting between the club, the French Football Federation (FFF) and the government.
Wednesday, before PSG’s defeat by Atlético de Madrid (2-1) in the Champions League, the Collectif ultras Paris (CUP) had deployed a tifo at the Parc des Princes with the message “Free Palestine”, around the colors red and blue of the capital club, with a bloody Palestinian flag, the flag of Lebanon, tanks and even a person wearing a keffiyeh.
The immense canvas bearing drawings and covering the entire Auteuil stand topped a banner “War on the ground but peace in the world”.
The FFF, represented by its director of institutional and international relations Erwan Le Prévost, and the PSG, with the general director Victoriano Melero, were received by the Minister of Sports, Gil Avérous, the Secretary of State in charge of citizenship and the fight against discrimination Othman Nasrou, as well as by the Paris police prefect Laurent Nunez.
“A frank and constructive dialogue made it possible to identify solutions that PSG is committed to putting in place from the next match organized at the Parc des Princes,” the minister’s entourage told AFP.
Another participant in this meeting explained to AFP that access to the Parc des Princes outside match days was going to be prohibited to the CUP for an undefined period and that the club had undertaken to put in place a procedure a priori control of tifos, in particular “to guarantee the absence of messages of a political nature”.
PSG has thus promised to “strengthen the process of controlling banners and ban those which have not been validated”, according to another source close to a participant from the Parisian club.
The CUP has “failed to comply with the regulations” and PSG is expected to announce “a number of other sanctions” in the near future.
The day before, UEFA assured that it would not initiate any proceedings against PSG, considering that “the banner displayed could not be considered provocative or insulting in this specific case”.
