PSG fans have again been banned from traveling to Marseille

Like every year since 2015, Paris Saint-Germain fans will once again be banned from traveling to Marseille on Sunday 26 February to support their team against Olympique de Marseille on matchday 25 of Ligue 1, according to a decree from the Ministry of Internal published on Thursday. This new ‘classic’ on Sunday promises to be a vital match, as just five points separate the Parisian leaders from second-placed Marseille.

Parisian fans had already been banned from traveling to Marseille on 8 February for the round of 16 of the soccer Coupe de France between the two great rivals, won by the Olympians (2-1). Furthermore, the Parisian ultras collective had brandished a banner during the PSG-Toulouse match, four days before their team’s trip to Marseille: “Fourteen years without going to Marseilles, are we sentenced to life?”

“Public order disturbances between the two clubs”

Invoking the “rivalry“between the fans of the two clubs having”caused serious disturbances to public order in the past and on a recurring basis”the police chief of the Bouches-du-Rhône had taken, at the beginning of February, orders banning Parisian fans”access the Stade Vélodrome and move around or park around it and in the neighboring districts“for the two matches on 8 and 26 February.

The ministerial decree, published on Thursday in the Official Gazette, integrates these provisions by banning “Sunday February 26, 2023 from midnight to midnight, the individual or collective journey, by any means whatsoever, of any person declaring themselves a fan of Paris-Saint-Germain or behaving as such, between the communes of the Ile-de region -France and the municipality of Marseille“.