Ligue 1 condemned anti-gay chants by some Paris Saint-Germain fans during Saturday’s home game against Strasbourg.
PSG are set to play their bitter rivals in Marseille next Sunday and there has been some aggressive snubs about the club and midfielder Adrien Rabiot. The France international is a former PSG player who made over 200 appearances for the club between 2012 and 2019 and his move to Marseille was seen as a betrayal.
“The discriminatory chants recently raised by Paris Saint-Germain supporters are unacceptable at a time when professional football as a whole is working to ban homophobic behavior and chants on stadiums,” the league said in a statement.
While the chants were going on, the stadium announcer at Parc des Princes twice asked for the chants to stop and was ridiculed.
Ligue 1 said its disciplinary committee would examine the evidence.
Last season, some PSG players were handed one-match bans by the league’s disciplinary committee for offensive chants targeting Marseille after a home league game.
Ousmane Dembélé, Achraf Hakimi, Randal Kolo Muani and Layvin Kurzawa were filmed using offensive language while celebrating after the 4-0 win over Marseille. Four players apologized.
The match was also marred by anti-gay chants from PSG fans aimed at Marseille players. As a result, the league ordered the Auteuil stand closed after one of the goals in two matches, including one that was abandoned.
PSG fans have been banned from attending next Sunday’s Stade Velodrome match in Marseille for security reasons following a history of clashes between rival fans.
The rivalry between the clubs has been one of the fiercest in French football since the 1990s, when Marseille was at its peak and PSG became more ambitious with the support of TV broadcaster Canal Plus.
PSG has been funded by Qatari investor QSI since 2011 and has won 12 league titles, making it the most successful French club in the country. That’s two more than Marseille and Saint-Etienne.
Marseille have not won the league since 2010 but still claim top bragging rights over PSG as the only French club to win the Champions League.
