This time, they were welcome at the Commanderie.
A week after a violent intrusion, and on the eve of the OM-PSG Ligue 1 clasico, this Sunday evening (9 p.m., Canal +), the groups of supporters of Olympique de Marseille were officially received this Saturday in a center training guarded by a large number of police officers.
The day before, the management of the Marseille club had written to the groups to renew the dialogue.
Fans responded that they only wanted to talk to the players.
The latter "accepted without hesitation", relates a source close to the locker room, who ensures that "the meeting went very well, in a logic of appeasement.
“Other sources evoke, all the same, virile discussions and severe reproaches, in particular towards Florian Thauvin, Dimitri Payet or Dario Benedetto.
Will this meeting be enough to avoid any overflow, this Sunday evening, around the clasico?
"Logically, you do not attack the guys with whom you discussed the day before", we hope at OM.
At the South Winners, we confirm: “We remain angry with the management, but we support the players before such an important game.
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pic.twitter.com/FfGWHhnqXt
- South Winners 1987 (@ Winners1987) February 3, 2021
Will the other groups be on the same line?
The Commando Ultra 84 refused to participate in this meeting, "remote-controlled" by the management, according to one of them.
The group does not digest the last words of Jacques-Henri Eyraud, who notably castigated “OM of the shenanigans” (and, implied, Bernard Tapie).
After the excesses at the Commanderie, the Ultras fear “a Marseille-style Leproux plan.
Last Saturday, the police chief assured that she would not hesitate to dissolve certain groups.
Monday, justice was severe with the 14 supporters arrested at the Commanderie: eight of them were remanded in custody, despite slim or non-existent criminal records.
On Thursday, the premises of the Ultras, like those of the Winners, were raided by police, who are wondering who the instigators of last Saturday's coup.
"The feeling of the Ultras is disgust", comments a good connoisseur of the group.
"The schedule of the match, well after the curfew, allows us to hope that nothing will happen"
The police hope that this threat which hangs over the supporters will dissuade them from demonstrating.
"It must make them think, ironically a police source.
There will be a very large security device anyway and the game schedule, well after the curfew, gives hope that nothing will happen.
About 400 police officers will be mobilized, five times more than for OM-Nîmes, for example.
The buses of the two teams will be “heavily escorted”, indicates the police headquarters: “The objective will be to make the route more fluid to prevent the buses from stopping, which is the biggest risk.
Police will also be on patrol to "detect and disperse" possible gatherings.
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OM-PSG: the Parisian ultras between irony and mistrust before the clasico
As always, the itineraries may be changed at the last minute, which did not prevent the Lyon buses in 2019 or the Parisian bus from being stuck in 2016. Behind closed doors and in full curfew, the context is no longer the same.
“I'm not too worried,” concludes Guy Cazadamont, who has been responsible for OM security for thirty years.
The demonstration last Saturday had a very strong impact, I don't see what the supporters can do after that.
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