It is a heavy, heavy silence that has accompanied PSG match nights at the Parc des Princes for nearly a year.
On March 11, 2020, the knockout round of the Champions League against Dortmund, was the first in a long series of meetings behind closed doors.
Of course, that day, thousands of Parisian supporters had gathered behind the Virage Auteuil to encourage their team from a distance, before communing with the players who came to greet them after having finally obtained the qualification for the quarter-finals.
A year later, for the Barcelona reception on Wednesday March 10, nothing has changed.
Access to the rue du Commandant-Guilbaud, which runs along the Parc des Princes, blocked by the police pending the arrival of the coaches of the two teams, will be the only external sign of an event which would have, in normal times, brought together nearly 50,000 people at the Park.
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This calm satisfies the residents who will only have been “disturbed” during the evening organized for 5,000 privileged people, in August, to follow the Champions League final on giant screens.
Or during the matches at the start of the season, in September, with a gauge of 5,000, against Marseille in particular.
“It's starting to hurt…, breaths Kevin, ultra Parisian and faithful to games at the Park since 1997. It's impossible to say that we get used to such a situation.
Being at the stadium is far too important a way of life.
It's embedded in us.
And not to be there for an eighth comeback ... It could have been a great celebration: eliminating Barça at home, it's still enjoyable.
"
Like many supporters in France and elsewhere, Kévin is not only frustrated at being deprived of a match.
“There is everything that goes with it,” he explains.
The friends we find at the “Deux Stades”
(Editor's note: the bar opposite the Park and the Jean-Bouin stadium)
.
It's a lifestyle.
Football, we have it on TV, almost better with slow motion and all ... But nothing will ever replace the frenzy of the stadium and the instant joy that follows a goal.
"
"Without the supporters, a match is not a match"
He, who was in the first leg in Dortmund last year, in any case could not imagine living such a year without a match.
"At worst, we said it was going to last six months and that it would be behind us," he slips.
On Wednesday night, like many fans, the most difficult moment will certainly be the one following the Champions League anthem.
“This music and nothing behind, it weighs, remarks Kévin.
Just hearing the players cheering or the announcer shouting into his microphone, without reaction from the audience, it hurts your heart.
"
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It is not the person who is saying the opposite.
Official speaker of PSG since 1998, Michel Montana confides: “The first word that comes to mind is
frustration
.
That does not answer… Without the supporters, a match is not a match.
"The voice of the Park wants to send them a message:" I miss you terribly and I can't wait for you to come back.
When I announce a goal, I think of you… ”
In the silence of an empty stadium and an atmosphere that he describes as "lunar, with the impression of attending an amateur match on Sunday afternoon", Michel Montana admits that he had trouble at the start. , to "find a suitable tone".
"We can not get into" ignitions ", he says.
And at the same time, at the beginning, I was too sober, it was sad.
I do not pretend to say that I have found the right tone, but, in any case, I try to adapt.
"To be fair, he thinks" of those who watch in front of their TV.
"
"It's a nameless sadness"
In the press gallery, the journalist Bruno Salomon also tries to create with the listeners of France Bleu Paris.
But he suffers in the face of the vacuum of the camera.
“In fact, it's horrible,” he breathes.
You lose your bearings, the energy that you can bring to the microphone.
For a commentator, this is really difficult.
“Aware of the“ privilege ”of attending PSG meetings, he says he is“ on a mission ”.
“We're so lucky to be there that we have to send even more,” he adds.
But a stadium like the Park, cut off from its vocal cords, is a nameless sadness.
"
To get by, he relies on the warmth of his consultant, Eric Rabesandratana, and on… Michel Montana.
“As Michel plays the game, it still gives you the Parisian touch and it makes a little sound that is caught in your microphone.
But that's not enough.
"By the way, the journalist tackles" the false songs "broadcast in the stadiums.
"A real hide-and-seek, launches the journalist.
We should punish all those who do that!
"