• At the call of the Collectif Ultras Paris, many PSG supporters gathered Wednesday evening in front of the PSG headquarters.
  • The objective was to send a message to the management of the club, in the aftermath of the Messi episode and especially as a catastrophic season ends at all levels.
  • For Parisian fans, the time of empty promises is over and profound changes are expected in the management of the club in the broad sense.

In Boulogne-Billancourt,

The insolent patience of the Collectif Ultras Paris therefore had limits. On autopilot since the elimination of Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, the ultras have so far observed with disturbing indifference the announced shipwreck of the club. So much so that the soundtrack of the Auteuil corner had ended up being confused with a vulgar sound system independent of the course of matches already sufficiently soporific. Do we win? We sing. We lose? We sing the same way. The 3-1 defeat against Lorient was the last straw, because it threatens the little that remains to this filthy 2022-23 vintage, the 11th title of champion of France.

As it is fashionable to demonstrate on May 1, Parisian fans showed up Monday in front of the Camp des Loges with their anger, fumis and a banner. The slogan is rather clear: "fed up before the tidal wave", with, in addition, a more traditional "leadership, resignation". The next day, in the shadow of the "bombazo" on the end of Lionel Messi's contract, the CUP launched a call for a gathering of "all sincere lovers of PSG" in front of the Factory, in Boulogne-Billancourt. The appointment is marked for Wednesday, 18 p.m.

At the Factory, leaflets, fumis and demands

On site, hundreds of Parisian fans responded to the call of the CUP. The dress-code set for the occasion are the colors of the club, if possible traditional: the RTL, Commodore and Opel jerseys so dear to the most nostalgic are well represented in the crowd. There are many unconscious to veil their shirt with Real and Barça jackets, but some of them will quickly be recarded before our eyes by a big guy, the meter 85, 110-120 kg easy. "There's one who put his jacket back on... I don't laugh with them. We're going to do a commando operation, that's the only thing they understand. »

A little bit of pressure without follow-up that borders on coherence. The identity of the club is indeed one of the many demands set out by the CUP in a leaflet distributed throughout the square in front of Avenue Émile Zola. Among others:

  • The overall management of the club: "we wonder if there is still a pilot in the plane. " Nasser Al-Khelaïfi has not escaped some "Nasser, resignation".
  • The freedom of the fans: "it must be the same for everyone, regardless of the stand."
  • PSG at the Parc des Princes: "We deplore the club's candidacy for the purchase of a Stade de France de Saint-Denis which has no soul or history in connection with our club. "
  • An ambitious and coherent recruitment: "the athlete is in total drift and this is due in particular to a recruitment at a discount and without a global vision. "
  • Get rid of parasitic players: "Respecting PSG also means knowing how to leave it. We will not hesitate to let them know. »

Threat immediately carried out. Lionel Messi, whose non-extension was welcomed by Romain Mabille, opened the ball of insulted players. Neymar will follow - some supporters will even end up gathering in front of his home to urge him to leave Paname - and, great novelty, Marco Verratti. The level of play of the Italian has joined his lifestyle in the pantheon of the infamous and his popularity rating has not survived. A song to the glory of Christophe Galtier, described as a "bitch" by the mutineers, will close the flow of rather pathetic insults, the party quickly turning into a contest of profanity by megaphone interposed. A bit of a shame in view of the good atmosphere also to be highlighted on the side of Boulogne – not the slightest overflow – and the overall relevance of the demands set out above.

Fed up with punishing the disaster

Given the virulence of the action, there is no doubt that it will be a landmark. That was the goal. The CUP intends to "put pressure [on the team] until the end of the season, because sportingly, it's crap." Whether we agree or not on the form, popular vindictiveness sanctions a catastrophic 2022-2023 season. The end of glitter decreed by Luis Campos last summer was only for the wrong reasons.

What is the point of playing sobriety if it is to strengthen oneself with blows of Etkitke and Soler and never confiscate the privileges of the stars? How can Marco Verratti, now in his thirties, return from a World Cup in which he did not even participate with four extra kilos on the scale, when a little further north, in Manchester, Erling Haaland, also exempt from Qatar, was puffing quinoa and cryotherapy while waiting for the time to traumatize Europe again?

Our file on PSG

Sanctions have clearly been lost along the way, and the Messi episode will remain, until proven otherwise, an exception. It will take more to buy the fable of a PSG suddenly become courageous and respectable. The institution above all is, it seems, the new credo of management. To subscribe to this naïve theory would be to forget that Paris has attached full powers to Mbappe's new contract.

The French international may deny it, this project is that of Kylian Saint-Germain, who gives free rein to his talent and his infinite ego. The golazos, that's him. The pivot gang is too. His case is also part of the problem. And that, the CUP seems – for the moment – to have obscured it a little. Here are in any case the Parisian leaders in a nice quagmire, stuck between the need to take a real turn in the management of the club and their allegiance to Mbappe.

  • Football
  • Paris-Saint-Germain (PSG)
  • Sport
  • Ultras
  • Lionel Messi
  • Kylian Mbappé
  • Nasser Al-Khelaïfi