It's not a surprise but OM will travel to the Parc des Princes on Sunday evening (8:45 p.m.) without their supporters.
Travel bans have been frequent in Ligue 1 for several years and this high-tension match will be no exception.
This was already the case last year.
Olympique de Marseille deplored this decision by the Ministry of the Interior in a press release.
The club “wishes to express its deep disappointment with this decision too systematically taken by the authorities in recent years.
OM, whose dialogue with its groups of supporters is permanent, is convinced that a supervised and well-organized trip presents less risk than an outright ban, which could lead some supporters to travel on their side.
By way of support, the Olympian players will wear a badge on their shirts on which will be inscribed the following message: “LIKE ONE MAN”.
Note that it is already planned that Parisian supporters will not attend the return match at the Stade Vélodrome on February 26.
The effectiveness of travel bans is debated
These travel bans are strongly criticized by supporters' associations.
They consider them unfair.
“It is better to punish the real culprits, collective punishment is only rarely the solution”, explained in 2021 the former leader of the LFP Frédéric Thiriez in our columns.
This point of view has made its way within the authorities.
At the end of September, the academic specialist in security Alain Bauer unveiled the main lines of the report commissioned by the LFP which he is about to submit.
“We have to get out of the collective sanction (such as travel bans, behind closed doors or withdrawal of points, editor’s note).
We must keep it as the ultimate argument, but a deterrent that we use all the time is no longer a deterrent,” he noted.
Among his concrete proposals on ticketing, there is the possibility of a "Turkish" device, namely a fan card to access the stadiums, or a mechanism for certifying the holder of a ticket already used during a concert. of Ed Sheeran at the Stade de France.
The 2021-2022 football season had been tumultuous as rarely in French stadiums, between the throwing of projectiles, the deployment of smoke bombs or the invasion of the pitch, up to the organizational failures of the Champions League final at the Stade de France.
Since the resumption, incidents have already involved OM supporters.
On September 3, on the sidelines of the trip to AJ Auxerre, fights broke out and a restaurant was ransacked.
Ten days later, clashes also opposed OM and Eintracht Frankfurt supporters at the Vélodrome.