Paris police ban fan gatherings to greet PSG players

Paris (AFP) – Paris police on Monday banned “parades and gatherings linked” to the Champions League, urging fans not to gather at the Parc des Princes to greet Paris Saint-Germain players upon their return later in the day. 

The ban will be in force “from 14.30 (1230 GMT) on Monday until 06.00 on Tuesday” and “everywhere in the capital,” the police said in a statement. 

Police commissioner Didier Lallement said the decision followed the events in the city as PSG lost the final to Bayern Munich. 

These, he said, brought “unacceptable damage and violence which has nothing to do with football and seriously marred the evening.” 

The police also prohibited the opening of “bars, pubs and restaurants as well as the consumption of alcoholic beverages on the public highway in the area” of the Parc des Princes from 16:30 Monday until 06:00 Tuesday.

The PSG squad landed at Charles de Gaulle airport on Monday and went directly to the ground by bus. 

The club planned a social event for the players and their families to conclude the 2019-20 season. 

The leading fan group, the Collectif Ultras Paris, which had planned a rally at 17.00 at the Parc des Princes to support the players issued a statement denouncing “the relentlessness of this prefecture against us.” 

They added Lallement “in no way wants to see our city celebrate.”

More than 150 people, a third of them minors, were taken into police custody in Paris late on Sunday after clashes with the police and damage to the stadium.