Ligue 2: why the Red Star match

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They had not most faced in official competition since 2019. This Saturday, September 28, 2024, as part of the 7th day of Ligue 2, Red Star hosts Paris FC in its lair at the Stade Bauer in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis).

The 2014 brawl still in everyone’s memory

For this first Ile-de-France derby in five years, the meeting was classified as high risk by the authorities. This Friday, the Seine-Saint-Denis prefecture published a decree prohibiting “any person claiming to be a supporter of the Paris FC club or behaving as such, from accessing the Bauer stadium (…) and drive or park on public roads within the defined perimeter.

A decision that does not surprise Valentin Guéry, lecturer at the Institute of Social and Political Sciences at Paris Nanterre University. “In 2014, a violent brawl broke out between supporters of the two clubs in a square in the 13th arrondissement,” he explains to Paris news. Around fifty men were involved in this event which left several injured, assured The Parisian in 2015. “The rivalry comes from there”assures the researcher.

Former PSG supporters in the stands of both clubs?

Valentin Guéry also sees in this “recent rivalry” the affirmation of two very distinct identities : “between Red Star supporters who claim to be left-wing and those of Paris FC who do not, but we know that some of its members have affiliations with the extreme right”.

These are two clubs with different models. The PFC is from the southern suburbs of Paris, while the Red Star comes from the Parisian suburbs.

Another factor which would explain this antagonism: the arrival of former PSG supporters in the stands of Bauer and Charléty (the Paris FC stadium). “They are veterans of Boulogne and Auteuil”, the two groups dissolved during the Leproux plan in 2010 after the death of a fan following violent clashes. “This Leproux plan led to a restructuring of Ile-de-France supporterism. At Red Star, a younger audience has appeared who adhere to a common ideology. Whereas at Paris FC, the mixed public is larger and more difficult to retain,” judges the lecturer.

Finally, after several years of vegetating in the third division, Red Star finds its neighbor PFC at the second national level. “There is also this desire to assert itself as the second club in the region behind PSG,” says Valentin Guéry.

The match between Red Star and Paris FC can be followed from 2 p.m. this Saturday, September 28, 2024 on BeIN Sports 2.

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