 |
ESPNsoccernet: Europe |
 |
Saturday, March 4, 2006
Marseille field B team against PSG due to safety fears
PARIS, March 4 (Reuters) - Olympique Marseille will field their B team against arch-rivals Paris St Germain in Sunday's match at the capital's Parc des Princes because of safety fears.
 |
| null (no_source) |
|
In an interview on the club website, Marseille chairman Pape
Diouf said the decision was taken 'because Paris St Germain did
not guarantee the security of the OM supporters'.
'We are going to send a team which will include young
players and professional players but not players regarded as
regulars,' he said.
'We have also asked our supporters not to travel to Paris. I
think they understand our position.'
Matches between PSG and OM are always regarded as high-risk
and security will be particularly tight after rival groups of
PSG supporters fought each other and ransacked a motorway
service station on their way back from a match last weekend.
The game, which was due to kick off at 2000 GMT, has been
brought forward four hours to help security forces.
The 48,000 spectators will be searched and some 1,200
policemen will be deployed around the stadium whose surroundings
will be open only to ticket-holders.
Diouf said earlier that Marseille were considering a boycott
of the game.
'PSG are guilty on two accounts; they are refusing to
provide 500 tickets we have ordered and have sold them to their
own fans who will be seated just above our supporters,' Diouf
told sports daily L'Equipe.
'This proximity is potentially explosive. It's sheer madness
and incompetence but we are not the puppets of PSG and we could
decide not to play.
'That's what we should have done last year when our team bus
was attacked by PSG supporters who smashed its windows.'
'Marseille ordered the tickets too late and we sold them to
members of our amateur association and to selected people,' PSG
security officer Jean-Philippe d'Hallivillee said.
'The two levels of the stand have been secured by a net
which makes impossible to throw projectiles on the lower seats.'
PSG chairman Pierre Playau declined to comment.