Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) won’t make tickets available to its fans for away games until further notice following the beating of a supporter before a French league match, the club president said on Tuesday.
A PSG fan was injured in a fight between rival factions of hooligans from the club before the 3-0 home loss to Marseille last weekend.
The 38-year-old fan sustained a serious head injury and was still in critical condition on Tuesday.
“Images of a man lying in his blood at the foot of the Parc des Princes run through my head these past two nights,” Robin Leproux told a press conference. “We reached a climax of violence ... I take my share of responsibility.”
Leproux said he decided to bar supporters from traveling “to act responsibly and guarantee security for all.”
PSG fans’ offices will also be closed and the club won’t appeal if it is sentenced to play matches behind closed doors.
French league president Frederic Thiriez fully supported the measures announced by Leproux.
“The situation created by irresponsible groups has become too serious,” Thiriez said in a statement. “The club, the league and the government must do everything to finally break this spiral, which is disastrous both for the future of the Parisian club and the image of French football.”
The clashes involved hooligans from the two main stands at PSG’s stadium Parc des Princes, the Tribune d’Auteuil and the Kop of Boulogne.
A 30-year-old man suspected of taking part in the beating was arrested after the fight. He was released on Monday night and has not been charged because of lack of evidence, police said on Tuesday.
Marseille fans had boycotted the game to protest against security measures imposed on visiting supporters.
French Sports minister Rama Yade will have a meeting with PSG officials in the coming days while Leproux was to meet Paris’s police prefect yesterday.
Following several months of relative tranquility, Kop of Boulogne and Auteuil fans — angered by their team’s poor results and a mutual opposition to the club’s chief backer, Colony Capital — started fighting again at the end of last year and clashed violently at Lille in January.
Last August, a PSG fan lost an eye after being hit by a bottle of beer during clashes with Montpellier fans.
On Nov. 23, 2006, a member of a group called the Boulogne Boys was shot and killed by a police officer after a UEFA Cup match between PSG and Hapoel Tel Aviv.
The policeman was protecting a Jewish fan under attack from thugs shouting anti-Semitic epithets.
PSG are 12th in the league with 33 points from 26 games, a performance that hardly matches their early season ambition to qualify for the Champions League.
The next generation of running talent takes center stage at today’s Berlin Marathon, in the absence of stars including Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and Ethiopian world record holder Tigist Assefa. With most of the major marathon stars skipping the event in the wake of the Paris Olympics just more than a month ago, the field is wide open in the men’s and women’s races. Since 2015, Kipchoge has won five times in Berlin, Kenenisa Bekele has won twice and Guye Adola once — with all three missing today. Kenyan Kibiwott Kandie and Ethiopian Tadese Takele are among the favourites for the men, while
Taiwan’s Tony Wu yesterday beat Mackenzie McDonald of the US to win the Nonthaburi Challenger IV in Thailand, his first challenger victory since 2022. The 26-year-old world No. 315, who won both his qualifiers to advance to the main draw, has been on a hot streak this month, winning his past nine matches, including two that ensured Taiwan’s victory in their Davis Cup World Group I tie. Wu took just more than two hours to top world No. 172 McDonald 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to win his second challenger tournament since the Tallahassee Tennis Challenger in 2022. Wu’s Tallahassee win followed two years of
Zhang Shuai yesterday said that she nearly quit after losing 24 matches in a row — now the world No. 595 is into the quarter-finals of her home China Open. The 35-year-old is to face Spain’s Paula Badosa as the lowest-ranked player to reach this stage in the history of the tournament after Badosa reeled off 11 of the last 12 games in a 6-4, 6-0 victory over US Open finalist Jessica Pegula. Zhang went into Beijing on a barren run lasting more than 600 days and her string of singles defeats was the second-longest on the WTA Tour Open era, which
Taiwanese martial artists bagged one gold, four silver and three bronze medals at the World Junior Wushu Championships in Brunei, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Brunei Darussalam said yesterday. Liu Yu-tzu won the gold medal in the girl’s taijiquan A group and also picked up a silver medal in the girl’s taijijian A group. Hu Hsin-ling, Yu Min-hsun and Chen Chao-hsiang each won a silver medal in the girl’s jianshu B, boy’s nangun B and boy’s taijijian A groups respectively. Hu also won a bronze medal in the girl’s qiangshu B group, while Yu and Lin Shih-hung picked up bronze medals
RSS