95% of the stadium for one side
The Trophée des Champions, France’s season-opening super cup, is supposed to be played on neutral ground. That is the theory. On Sunday at Bollaert, reality told a different story.
Almost 95% of the ground was set aside for Lens fans. PSG, officially listed as the home club under the rules as French champions, were given only 1,850 tickets for their supporters. For a fixture of this size, that is a tiny away allocation.
Lens won 1-0, hanging on with 10 men for close to an hour. No one is questioning the sporting value of Dino Toppmoller’s side. The organisation of the night, though, is another matter.
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Article 801, and what it really says
The LFP regulations, in article 801, state that the match must be played “on neutral ground”, with the French champions also treated as the “home” club. Those two ideas sit awkwardly together when the champions are then shoved into the away section.
The rest of the staging followed the logic of the stadium. The usual Bollaert entertainment before kick-off and at half-time. One announcer only, Lens’s. None of the shared set-up you would expect at a Coupe de France final at the Stade de France.
The clearest comparison comes from the competition itself. Three years ago the Trophée was played at the Parc des Princes between PSG and Toulouse, and that edition drew plenty of complaints as well. But at least the set-up tried to find some balance: a 50-50 split in the stands, neutral dressing around the ground, and both announcers in place so each club kept a bit of its own atmosphere.
The second Lens-PSG row in four months
This is not the first time the LFP has found itself at the centre of a clash between these two clubs. Last season, the postponement of their Ligue 1 meeting left a lasting sense of frustration inside the Lens camp. Less than four months separate the two episodes.
One detail did not go unnoticed. Vincent Labrune was not in the stands. Nor was Nasser Al-Khelaifi. The Collectif Ultras Paris also stayed away.
The choice of Bollaert had already been debated before the match, with other venues mentioned. The question raised on Monday goes beyond the stadium. It is about what the league actually means when it says neutral ground.
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