After offending Messi. SG strengthens protection in front of players' homes

Paris Saint-Germain, the French football league leaders, has stepped up protection in front of the training headquarters in Cannes de Logue and the homes of players after they were targeted with hostile phrases from the club's fans such as Argentina's Lionel Messi, Brazilian Neymar and Italian Marco Ferrari, AFP learned Thursday from sources familiar with the measures. Hundreds of fans and "ultras" of the capital club demonstrated yesterday in front of the club's headquarters in Boulogne-Billancourt to express their anger at the situation and the decline in the team's performance.

Three days after the 3-1 league loss to Lorient, which was PSG's third in their last four home games, fans chanted: "We are tired of mercenaries! Messi must be fired! The president of the club must be fired, the management must resign and "Paris is us". Some fans criticised specifically carrying smoke bombs Messi, Neymar, Verratti and coach Christophe Galtier and held up banners calling on players to "wet the shirt" outside the club's premises.

About 100 fans wearing black shirts also gathered in front of the house of Neymar, who is absent from the stadiums until the end of the current season due to injury, in Bougivale (Evelyn) chanting abusive slogans "Neymar, leave", according to a source explained to AFP, stressing that some of them indicated "that they want to repeat their movement every evening."
The demonstrators dispersed "quietly minutes after their arrival" without "wanting to clash with the police".

Neymar wrote in Portuguese on his Instagram page yesterday evening: "Don't let people put you in a storm, keep them at peace." Against the backdrop of these events, Qatari-owned Saint-Germain has taken measures to strengthen protection, especially with the increased presence of security guards at the training center in Cannes de Logue and in front of the homes of Neymar, Messi and Verratti "all targeted" with hostile chants, another source told AFP.

The club responded in a statement issued yesterday evening that "Paris Saint-Germain condemns in the strongest terms the intolerable and degrading behaviour of a small group of individuals, which took place this Wednesday." "Whatever the differences, nothing can justify such actions. The club offers its full support to its players, management and all those involved in these shameful behaviours."
Collective Ultras Paris expressed concern for the fate of the club, saying in a statement: "We are genuinely concerned about the future and sustainability of our club," wondering "whether there is still a pilot on board."