Summoned to the Ministry of the Interior this Friday to explain itself, two days after the “Free Palestine” tifo deployed at the Parc des Princes by the Collectif Ultras Paris, PSG will take sanctions.
A meeting that will have consequences. On Wednesday, ahead of the Champions League match against Atlético de Madrid, the Collectif Ultras Paris displayed a much-discussed “Free Palestine” banner. Faced with the controversy, PSG, which had “no knowledge” of the tifo, was summoned to a meeting at the Ministry of the Interior this Friday.
Like the instructions that Bruno Retailleau had transmitted to his Secretary of State in charge of the fight against discrimination Othman Nasrou, the latter gave a firm speech to the general director of PSG Victoriano Melero, who was summoned to Beauvau, and which came with a file bringing together all the measures already taken by the club.
According to a participant in the meeting, the discussions were constructive. Nasrou recalled recent events deemed unacceptable in the Parc des Princes such as homophobic chants and therefore this pro-Palestine tifo. The Interior Ministry expected the club to sanction its supporters. “Anger has been expressed, it will not go away on its own. If the club's response is insufficient, it will be open to interpretation. If there are no sanctions, the Ministry of the Interior will not will not be satisfied with it,” announced the Secretary of State during the meeting.
A future tifos control procedure?
According to our information, it has now been decided that access to the Parc des Princes outside of match days will be prohibited to the Collectif Ultras Paris for an undefined period. An idea which had sprouted in the minds of the club management very quickly after the match and which had already been taken in the past.
PSG will consider setting up a procedure for controlling fans in order to guarantee the absence of messages of a political nature within the venue. Discussions within the club should quickly begin on this subject. A reflection on a period without tifo for the Tribune Auteuil could also begin without any details having been put forward.
The ministry also insisted that PSG make concrete progress on the issue of commercial stadium bans for individual cases that it would have identified. On the FFF side, which was simply invited, it was Erwan le Prévost, director of institutional relations, who represented the federal body during this meeting.
