“I turned off the television at halftime on Tuesday night. It pissed me off to see them in the final. That they win the Champions League would hurt me to a point, you can't even imagine! "OM jersey on the back, Anthony comes alive in the middle of one of the arteries leading down to the Old Port at the simple statement of the reason for our coming to Marseille.
After Monaco in 2004, it is PSG's turn to find themselves one match away from joining OM in the club of which they are the only member, that of the tricolor winners of the Champions League. And see the much hated rival sit at the table in case of victory against Bayern Munich this Sunday night crisps in the Bouches-du-Rhône.
"It is necessarily something that tends to us"
“We are afraid that the PSG will win, recognizes Alexandre, 20, crossed at the foot of the stairs leading to a Saint-Charles station bathed in sunshine in August. I did not experience the victory in 1993, but this status makes OM a great club in France. But Paris, with its stars and its money, is worrying. We know that they have the means to go get it this year or another. "
“It is thanks to OM and our victory in the Champions League that Ligue 1 is considered the smallest of the five big leagues and not just a rotten sub-division, said Anthony. Seeing our biggest rival equal us is necessarily something that tends to us. "
In recent days, Marseille supporters have been annoyed in front of their screens. Those on television where they could see the performances of their two great rivals on the national stage, OL and PSG, in the Champions League. Then on their cellphones, where the images of Parisian supporters on vacation were filmed celebrating too demonstratively in their eyes the victory against Atalanta Bergamo quarterback in the bars of the port city.
Descent into the bars of the Old Port
“The guys played around thinking they had the right to do everything with us. We went to calm them down, ”says Grégory. Thursday, a hundred Marseille supporters walked the streets around the Old Port, sang insulting chants against PSG and cracked firecrackers. Some of them also went to make sure that the bars did not broadcast the meeting.
In #Marseille, when the #PSG wins, you have groups of Marseillais crisscrossing the Old Port, shouting "Paris on you fuck" and cracking firecrackers. #PSGRBL pic.twitter.com/ZvKfQ05CAl
- simon louvet (@simonlouvet_) August 18, 2020“We have connections with the ultras who asked us not to skip the match,” explains O'Maley's, a local pub. There had already been some little trouble in the quarter-final, so we preferred not to tempt the devil. It is better to lose a few numbers by telling certain customers that we do not broadcast the half rather than seeing things degenerate. "
"There are a lot of Parisian tourists on vacation in the area this summer with the restrictions linked to the Covid and they want to watch the PSG matches, describes Julien, manager of the Corner, a nearby bar, which also did not broadcast the half. It's a shame we can't broadcast soccer, but it's part of this city. We must make do. "
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Some establishments have ignored the "instructions". This is the case of the British Pub, forced under pressure to stop broadcasting during the meeting. "About sixty people came to put pressure and insult customers," said a waiter. To avoid worries, we preferred to say stop. “A few meters away, at Queen Victoria, Marseille supporters came to unplug the television which gives outside.
Some Parisian supporters have also been taken to task. Under pressure from a group, a man was forced to take off his PSG jersey and end the evening shirtless, say several witnesses. According to La Provence, a man was arrested for precisely attacking a man who wore the top of the Champions League finalist.
To "prevent any disturbance to public order", the police headquarters of Bouches-du-Rhône had initially prohibited by an order to display the colors of the PSG in the city center this Sunday evening. Then, faced with the controversy and pressure from the Ministry of the Interior, the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône had to backtrack.
"Difficult for some to understand this reasoning"
Contacted, several Marseille supporters recall that in November, PSG supporters attacked OM fans during rapper Jul's concert at the AccorHotels Arena or in a bar in the capital during the semi-final of the Europa League between OM and Salzburg in 2018. A video, deleted from social networks since, where a man attacks the club's emblem during a visit to the Velodrome has also heated up OM's support. The Marseille club announced Monday its intention to file a complaint.
“Frankly, how can anyone blame us for not wishing them to win? Do you think they were happy in 1993? », Loose Roland, 53 years old. "We are not a football country so it is difficult for some to understand this reasoning, continues Frédéric, Marseille supporter present in the Old Port, Tuesday evening. The best example to give is to ask yourself if the people of Madrid are for Barca in the Champions League final when they play it and vice versa. "
This Sunday, many claim they will not watch the game against Bayern Munich. "But we will monitor the score with one eye, just to go taunt them on social networks, if they lose," smiles Samir, leaning against the counter of a bar in La Canebière. “If they win, their name will be listed on the prize list, it will remain a Champions League, loose Frédéric. But the whole world will remember the year they won it. And of this simplified format which can benefit a club which took a lot of reflexes lately. "
