PSG vs Barcelona Will Go Ahead in Paris Despite the Riots, Minister Confirms

Tuesday’s Champions League match between Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona at the Parc des Princes will go ahead as planned, and the confirmation came from the top of the French government. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Monday, after an emergency meeting at which cancelling planned events had been discussed, that the fixture was not among them. The match survived a weekend of rioting across France and a Monday order for partial, localised curfews, with kickoff unchanged at 12:00 PM PDT.

Why was the match ever in doubt?

Because the weekend in France was severe enough for cancellation to reach the agenda of an emergency meeting. The unrest began with student protests over school funding and widened into grievances over the cost of living, government spending cuts and declining public services, the Associated Press reported. Rioting hit Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities, targeting city halls, public buildings and hundreds of businesses. The Interior Ministry put arrests at about 2,400, Reuters reported one protester died of a cardiac arrest on Saturday and nearly 1,000 officers were injured, and President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation on television on Sunday night to condemn the violence.

What exactly did the government decide on Monday?

Two things at once, and the limits matter as much as the decisions. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu instructed regional prefects to impose partial, localised curfews in urban centres, and said plainly, in both the AP and Reuters accounts, that putting all of Paris under curfew was out of the question. Then Nuñez addressed the week’s events directly. Cancelling fixtures had been discussed, he said, “but this does not apply to tomorrow’s match between PSG and FC Barcelona.” Reuters, reporting the same press conference independently, put it in its own words: there were no plans to cancel Tuesday evening’s match. Nuñez gave the same assurance for Wednesday’s Lille vs Galatasaray match in Lille.

What changed on Tuesday morning?

The first test of the curfews passed, and the government said so. Lecornu said on Tuesday that the targeted curfews had helped keep the peace overnight, and that local authorities would be able to impose them again on Tuesday night where they judged it necessary. The Monday curfews that were imposed in Paris covered the République and Les Halles areas from 11:00 PM to 6:00 AM, not the stadium district in the west of the city. For the match itself, ParisFans reported that the national hooliganism division classified it as a level 2 risk on a five-point scale, that the police prefecture did not alter its standard arrangements despite the unrest, and that just over 2,000 Barcelona supporters are expected, watched by the usual five mobile squadrons and PSG’s in-stadium security staff.

What did PSG’s coach say?

As little as he could, on the record. Luis Enrique, at his Monday pre-match press conference, said he was not the right person to speak on the topic and that he was there to talk about football, the AP reported. His team does not like the violence, he said, and in the fuller wire text he added that he was not scared and that the tensions would not affect his players. Nobody at the club pretended the backdrop was normal, and Paris has a recent precedent involving this club: in May, police detained dozens of people after violence broke up celebrations of PSG’s Champions League title, and a group tried to storm a police station, a sequence the AP report set out on Monday.

How big is the match that survived the meeting?

It is the league phase’s biggest fixture so far, which is part of why cancelling it was never a small decision. PSG and Barcelona sit first and second in the table, both on six points, per Al Jazeera’s preview. The defending champions beat Slovan Bratislava 6-1 at home and won 4-2 at Manchester City. Barcelona beat Feyenoord 5-1 and won 4-1 at Galatasaray, and arrive with nine wins from nine in La Liga. The individual thread running through it is Lamine Yamal, whose last headline night in Spain produced the Bernal headbutt incident against Betis. A PSG and Barcelona meeting carries knockout weight in October because of what fills the list of most Champions League titles and the competition’s all-time scoring chart, and nights like this are measured against the biggest single-game scoring performances in Champions League history.

What has not been announced?

The absences are part of the story, and they held through Tuesday morning. No kickoff change, no fan restrictions for the Parc des Princes, no behind-closed-doors order and no UEFA statement on the fixture had been reported. Former PSG forward Kylian Mbappé, whose panenka against Sevilla was this month’s reminder of how fast these casts turn over, plays elsewhere now. Tuesday’s version is Yamal against the champions, in a city the government spent Monday trying to calm and Tuesday morning declaring calmer. If the security picture changes before kickoff, this page updates.