“If necessary, there will be sanctions! » The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau was very clear this Thursday morning after the deployment of a huge tifo with the message “Free Palestine” the day before in the stands of the Parc des Princes during the defeat of PSG against Atlético de Madrid in the Champions League (1-2).
“It’s unacceptable,” said Bruno Retailleau on Sud Radio. It's a tarpaulin measuring tens and tens of square meters. UEFA and football regulations in general prohibit political messages, and this is one of them. » The Ministry of the Interior explained that it was not holding back “nothing” and that it would start by asking “explanations” and “accounts” from Paris Saint-Germain. “When we impose a sanction, there is the principle of adversarial. First, I want to hear them. For the moment, there is no appointment set. I had the police chief so that they could report to me what happened,” said the tenant of Place Beauvau.
Just before the start of the meeting, the Parisian ultras unveiled a huge tarpaulin of support for Palestine and Lebanon, engaged in a war against Israel for many months. Against the background of a holed and bloodstained Palestinian flag, a man with his face covered in a keffiyeh (traditional headdress that has become a symbol of the Palestinian cause) in front of the message “Free Palestine”, where the “I” was replaced by the map of Israel filled with the keffiyeh pattern.
Also in this drawing, a young child carries the flag of Lebanon on his shoulders. At the foot of this imposing tifo, a banner with the following sentence: “War on the ground but peace in the world”. This tifo gave way, before kick-off, to a second, more traditional one, using the colors of PSG and with the inscription “Ultras Paris”, extending to the Paris stand.
“Or they are able to ban this kind of thing, otherwise there will be a ban on banners. If necessary, there will be sanctions,” Bruno Retailleau subsequently announced. At the same time, the Ministry of the Interior supported its comments on its X account. “I ask PSG to explain itself and the clubs to ensure that politics does not damage sport, which must always remain a ferment of unity, he wrote. This tifo had no place in this stadium, and such messages are also prohibited by the regulations of the League and UEFA. If this happens again, we will have to consider banning tifos for clubs that do not enforce the rules.”
Contacted by Le Parisien, the club reacted even before the end of the meeting, ensuring that it had no “knowledge of the plan to display such a message”. “Paris Saint-Germain recalls that the Parc des Princes is – and must remain – a place of communion around a common passion for football and firmly opposes any message of a political nature in its stadium. »
