Gabriel Moscardo ruled out of Reims' relegation play-off
Paris Saint-Germain loanee Gabriel Moscardo (19) is almost certain to have already played his last game for Stade de Reims. The Brazilian suffered an injury against parent club PSG in Saturday's Coupe de France final. Reims manager Samba Diawara has said that the midfielder will play no part against FC Metz on Thursday night.
Diawara has confirmed that Moscardo suffered an ankle sprain against his parent club as Les Stadistes lost 3-0. He will therefore not be operational against Metz. After the first leg of their relegation play-off, the scores are level at 1-1. Moscardo is expected to return to PSG at the end of the season. He made 10 appearances for Reims in all competitions this season.
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Reims will also be without Yaya Fofana, Reda Khadra, and Mohamed Daramy. The latter is out with a long-term knee injury. Teddy Teuma, excluded from the first team and permitted to go on holiday, is the other major absentee in Les Stadistes' biggest game of the season.
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New York Times
21 minutes ago
- New York Times
The ultimate Champions League final guide – PSG's pacy pressing vs Inter's intelligent defensive unit
With 188 Champions League games played, just one remains. Tonight's final between Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan provides an intriguing tactical battle between two styles of play. The omens look good for PSG as they look to lift the trophy for the first time — the previous four finals in Munich all provided a first-time winner and the only other time a French and Italian side met in the final (Marseille vs Milan, 1993 in Munich), the team from France came out on top. Advertisement However, Simone Inzaghi's Inter are competing in their second Champions League final in three years, and many of that 2022-23 squad remain, meaning they benefit from experience. This is the first time the two teams have faced each other in a competitive fixture, so there is no historical data to look at, but there are clues from the run-in to the final, so allow The Athletic to unpack some key tactical themes that might emerge. Last week, speaking at the UEFA media day ahead of the final, Luis Enrique was glowing in his assessment of PSG's pressing capabilities: 'You can see how many ball recoveries (the attackers) have. This is one of the concepts that is hardest to instil because attackers have to change their mindset. It's about working as a team. We did that last season, but we've been better this year.' He has coached them into becoming one of Europe's most aggressive pressing sides, often comfortable going man-for-man, though they have tweaked their scheme in deeper Champions League rounds — keeping an extra defender back and leaving No 9 Ousmane Dembele to cut the pitch in half while PSG lock on down one side. Their press was particularly excellent in the round of 16 first leg at home to Liverpool, forcing them long, and left-back Nuno Mendes shut down Mohamed Salah when he was targeted with direct balls. The challenge now is implementing that press against one of Europe's best sides at playing over and through opponents. Manchester City head coach Pep Guardiola summarised after the 2023 Champions League final that 'they bring you up (bait the press). They found the strikers, they link really well, (they) can keep it, and after they run for the other side.' Inter's opening goal in the quarter-final first leg away to Bayern Munich — the top-pressing team in the Champions League this season — proved that. Inzaghi's side built up in a 2-3 shape, pushing left centre-back Alessandro Bastoni on. When Bayern jumped, Sommer went over the press, targeting Lautaro Martinez, with Inter two-v-two against Bayern's centre-backs. Lautaro, only 5ft 8in (176cm) tall, beats Kim Min-jae in the air and flicks it on to Marcus Thuram. Immediately, he arcs a run in support as they play a one-two. The release pass to wing-back Carlos Augusto is not quite on — because he ran so early, he is offside — so Lautaro finds the advancing centre-back Bastoni. Bastoni then plays forward to Augusto, with both Inter wing-backs on the last line (Matteo Darmian is just in shot on the near side). The rest of the move has to be appreciated in video form, with Augusto's early, low cross trying to find a tap-in for Thuram. It ends up a little more behind him than he wants, and the France international reacts excellently to backheel it into Lautaro's path. He picks out the top-right corner with an outside-of-the-boot finish. Full-backs — or wing-backs — very rarely tend to be match-winners, but that could easily be the case in this final. Inter's 3-5-2 in possession is built on the attacking output of Federico Dimarco and Denzel Dumfries, with the latter involved in five of Inter's six goals (two goals, three assists) in the semi-final over Barcelona. Collectively, Inter have scored 10 times from crosses this Champions League season, the most in the competition. They showed their wide threat inside a minute of the semi-final when they baited the Barcelona press, played long to Thuram, and Nicolo Barella released Dumfries. After his first cross was cleared — with Dimarco attacking the back post — he crossed low for Thuram to backheel in. It's a dream start for Inter. Marcus Thuram gives the visitors the lead after just 30 seconds with a wonderful improvised finish. The Estadi Olimpic Lluis Companys is stunned.#UCL 🎥 @footballontnt — The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) April 30, 2025 PSG's full-backs are equally fundamental to their style. Right-back Achraf Hakimi is rarely right or back in the team, often taking up aggressive positions in the half-space in attack, as PSG's 4-3-3 really builds up as a 3-2-5. He provides plenty of underlapping runs to support and combine with the winger — either Desire Doue or Khvicha Kvaratskhelia — and a real box-crashing threat too. On the left, Nuno Mendes tucks in plenty to cover for Hakimi, often making a back three. In moments of settled possession, though, he will push forward too to overload the last line. Hakimi (eight) and Mendes (five) are second and fourth for goal involvements in the PSG squad this European term, and they either scored or assisted eight of their 19 knockout round goals. They combined for PSG's second in the quarter-final return leg away to Aston Villa, breaking from deep with Hakimi making the third-man run when Kvaratskhelia set a pass back to Joao Neves. PSG were four-versus-two, with Mendes running — offside — straight through the centre and Dembele having pulled wide. Hakimi passed wide to Dembele, who dribbled. Hakimi's underlap took the defender with him… … and Dembele passed across to Mendes, who controlled with his first touch and curled past Emi Martinez, in off the post, with his second. Many neutrals might give PSG the edge in Saturday's final, given the blistering pace and intelligent interchange of their fluid attack. However, if there were one team in European football that you would back to stop them, it would be Inter. Inter's defensive unit has been incredible in the Champions League this season, conceding just one open-play goal in their opening 10 games. Granted, six goals conceded across two semi-final legs against Barcelona will give Luis Enrique confidence that he can inflict similar punishment on Inzaghi, but Inter are comfortable in their disciplined 5-3-2 block that can frustrate teams for long periods. Inter are not set up to be gung-ho in their pressing, but will shuffle across from left to right and block central spaces — forcing the opposition to circulate possession and do their best to find gaps in their structure. While PSG are not the most aerially dominant in attack, they could learn from Inter's semi-final clash with Barcelona — where crosses were a thorn in the side of the Nerazzurri. Running back the tape, Inter failed to deal with back-post crosses specifically, with Barcelona scoring three goals that way. Advertisement Given Inter's back-five defensive line, disruption can come from second-line runners or aggressive full-back position from the opposition (as was the case with Dani Olmo and Eric Garcia's finishes below), meaning that late runs from PSG's Hakimi, Nuno Mendes, or Fabian Ruiz could be crucial in unlocking Inter's defence. Crucially, Inter are not accustomed to chasing the game. Such defensive discipline and intelligent street-smarts have meant that Inzaghi's side have trailed for just 16 minutes across the whole Champions League campaign — just one per cent of their total time on the pitch. Considering they have played against Arsenal, Manchester City, Bayer Leverkusen, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, you can understand why caution is being encouraged when suggesting that PSG are the overwhelming favourites in Munich. When the margins are so tight between two elite sides, moments from set pieces could be integral in swinging the outcome of this final. Inter have had plenty of success from set-piece situations on the domestic stage this season, with 18 set-piece goals scored being comfortably the highest in Serie A. Meanwhile, goals from corners have been particularly lucrative for Inzaghi's side in the Champions League, with 9.5 goals per 100 corners being the highest rate of any team in the competition this season. Goals from Benjamin Pavard and Dumfries have been crucial in Inter's knockout phase clashes with Bayern Munich and Barcelona, with the Nerazzurri boasting seven different goalscorers from corner routines across league and European competition this season. Much of that threat stems from the delivery. While Dimarco can whip in an excellent cross from the left, Inter's best set-piece taker is undoubtedly Hakan Calhanoglu, with the Turkey international well placed to take corners from both sides of the pitch. Advertisement That explains Inter's asymmetry in corner style, where the majority of deliveries are from Calhanoglu's outswingers from the right — compared with a more equitable share between Dimarco and Calhanoglu from the left, varying the approach between inswinging and outswinging crosses. Irrespective of the taker, Inter's delivery is often placed perfectly towards the central zones — close to the penalty spot — for team-mates to attack. The battling approach from Inzaghi's side is borne out in the numbers, with a 54 per cent duel success rate in Europe this season — better than any other side since the start of the competition. Winning first contact and responding to second balls might not sound attractive, but such an agricultural part of the game could be crucial in deciding where the trophy ends up by the end of Saturday evening. For this answer, we can turn to The Athletic's match prediction model. This uses per-shot expected goals to create an attacking and defensive rating for each team, before employing a data model to simulate upcoming games. Here, the model is giving the edge to Luis Enrique's side, with PSG having a 53 per cent chance of victory (excluding penalties) compared with Inter's 27 per cent. If pushed for more detail, The Athletic's model predicts that a 2-1 PSG victory will be the most likely scoreline on the night. That would be a logical projection of events on Saturday evening in Munich — but as we know, football does not conform to logic. In a straight shootout at the highest level of European competition, all rules often go out of the window. Leave your predictions in the comments below. Where to watch the final: UK — TNT Sports 1 and Discovery+, 6pm BST; U.S. — CBS and Paramount+, 1.30pm ET (Illustration: Eamonn Dalton / The Athletic; Thibaud MORITZ / AFP, David Ramos, Jeroen van den Berg/Soccrates, Mattia Ozbot – Inter/Inter /Getty Images)
New York Times
30 minutes ago
- New York Times
Is Champions League money making Europe's domestic football uncompetitive?
For all that this season marks a new epoch in the tale of booming UEFA prize money, cash will be far from the thoughts of Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday evening in Munich. Luis Enrique and his players sit on the cusp of the club's first Champions League success, a prize both coveted and elusive since the French club were taken over by Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) almost 15 years ago. Advertisement Since that date, QSI has poured billions into transforming a team that, in an albeit truncated existence since they were formed in 1970, had only won the French league twice. Eleven more championships have followed in the subsequent 14 seasons, with PSG's domestic ventures rarely even resembling a proper competition. A comparison of Ligue 1 wage bills, that great financial barometer of on-field performance, has long required two scales — one for PSG, another for the rest. Money, then, is not at the forefront of the Paris club's mind as they face Inter of Italy tonight. That is despite the fact a win at the Allianz Arena would see PSG take home a single-season record in UEFA prize money, eclipsing the previous mark of €138.8million (£116.4m/$157.2m) set by Real Madrid's triumph in the same fixture last year. PSG should clear €140million in earnings if they win it all, a figure which would have been higher had they fared better than 15th in the competition's newly-introduced league phase, with four wins and a defeat in their eight matches. Inter did better, finishing fourth by winning six times and drawing once, which helped them make up ground lost due to Italian TV rights forming a smaller share of the Champions League pool. They should top €140m with a win this evening, too. PSG hardly want for money, but it's a different story among their domestic peers. Ligue 1's already-reduced TV deal with DAZN has been cancelled just one season into a five-year term, and the trouble surrounding the matter reportedly led Jean-Marc Mickeler, the head of the DNCG, French football's financial watchdog, to request that clubs budget for no domestic TV money at all next season. Another report in leading French newspaper L'Equipe back in August laid bare the stark drop-off that awaited Ligue 1 clubs even with the DAZN deal in place. At the top end, it was estimated the league winners (inevitably that turned out to be PSG, again) would bank around €22million in prize money this season — roughly a third of 2023-24's €60m. That €22m is less than €4m away from the €18.6m PSG and three other Ligue 1 clubs pocketed simply for reaching the league phase of the Champions League. Advertisement The reduction was similar in percentage terms at the other end, with this year's bottom-placed side, Montpellier, expected to earn just €5million, again around a third of last season's basement dwellers Clermont. Of course, while the percentage shift might be similar, the real impact on clubs lower down the league in France is likely to be much harsher, just as the improved Champions League bounty could have an outsized impact on the top ones. This season, three other French clubs joined PSG in the Champions League, and each of Lille, Monaco and Brest have earned far more from Europe than they did domestically. In the case of Brest, their expected earnings from a first foray into European competition in club history are pegged at around the €50million mark; Brest's total revenue in 2023-24 was just €64m. In a positive sense, the money flowing from Brest's unlikely arrival on the biggest stage can help elevate a club otherwise unlikely to compete for trophies all that often. Yet the stark disparity between what French sides can earn at home and abroad risks deepening divides within a league that already suffers badly from a lack of competition at its top end. What of Saturday's other finalists? Inter will be looking to make up for narrowly missing out on a second consecutive Serie A title last weekend to Napoli. Financially, like their opponents this weekend, they'll earn more from Europe this season than they did at home. The difference, though, is nowhere near as vast. Inter received €101.1million in prize money for winning the Italian league in 2023-24, and while their earnings as runners-up this season are unclear (it will be less than their European income, given their progress to the Champions League final), the impact of UEFA funds on the overall finances of Serie A is less pronounced than it will now be over in France. Advertisement That is even more true of the other domestic leagues that make up Europe's 'Big Five'. Based on UEFA's most recent European Club Finance and Investment Landscape report, clubs in England's Premier League relied on income from the continental competitions for just 6.7 per cent of their combined revenues in the 2022-23 season. That was the third-lowest mark among UEFA's 54 national associations; the only countries where European prize money made up a lower proportion of club revenues were Russia, whose teams remain barred from the three competitions following the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, and Romania, where figures were impacted by its clubs' financial years running annually rather than across two football seasons. In Spain and Germany, UEFA money comprised around 10 per cent of top-tier turnover, even as clubs in those countries received €386million and €335m respectively from the European governing body. Spanish and German sides, collectively, generate substantial revenue from other sources. At the other end of the scale, per that same UEFA report, several national associations significantly rely on European income. In five of them, UEFA money comprised more than half of clubs' annual turnover in the 2023 financial year. Leading the way in that regard in both 2022 and 2023 was Gibraltar, where money from UEFA comprised over 70 per cent of total revenues in the top tier. Clubs from the tiny state at the southern tip of Western Europe generated just €8.2million across the two years, €6m of it coming via the continent's football governing body. The vast majority of that also accrued to one club. Lincoln Red Imps reached the Conference League group stage in 2021-22 and have continued to enjoy income from UEFA competition since. In the 2024 calendar year, they banked a further €2million even while not making it beyond this season's Conference League qualifying phases. That's great for them but ruinous for competitive balance at home; since the turn of the millennium, Lincoln have failed to win Gibraltar's top league only twice. Advertisement That's not a uniform occurrence but there are other examples of how prize money earned at European level can simply widen domestic gaps. In Moldova, third on our list, Sheriff Tiraspol's run in the Champions League in 2021-22 included a historic 2-1 away win against the competition's eventual winners Madrid. For their efforts, the first side from the Moldovan league ever to reach the group stage earned €24.2million in prize money. By contrast, the total income in their domestic league in 2022 was just €16m (note that Sheriff's European income was split across their 2021 and 2022 financial years, so doesn't correspond to the single-season income from UEFA). Sheriff's journey to the Bernabeu began through them winning the Moldovan Super Liga a season earlier, their 19th domestic title in 21 seasons. That would swiftly become 21 in 23. Exploits abroad gave them an even greater financial advantage back home. Strangely enough, though, Sheriff's continental boon has since been followed by reduced domestic dominance. In both 2023-24 and 2024-25, they only managed a runners-up spot, so perhaps more money doesn't always translate to ever-greater success. For club accounts with a financial year ending in 2023, 15 national associations relied on UEFA for more than a quarter of team incomes in their respective top tiers. That was actually a reduction from 2022, when 22 national associations attributed more than 25 per cent of revenue to monies from UEFA. Several of those associations might be termed minnows, reliant on money from afar or susceptible to the skewing effect of one of their sides progressing further than expected on the continent. Yet a constant among the nations relying on UEFA for a big chunk of club incomes is one few would consider a footballing backwater. In both 2021-22 and 2022-23, teams in Portugal's Primeira Liga earned 32 per cent of their collective revenues from Europe. In the latter season, €195million of the division's €615m total revenue came from UEFA, with the majority of it accruing to a small slew of teams. Advertisement UEFA hasn't released figures for financial years ending in 2024, but the general trend in Portugal will remain. Across 13 clubs (data for five more is currently unavailable), €161million of €587m total revenue was attributable to UEFA which, while a proportional reduction on 2023 (2024: 27 per cent), is still a high amount and, what's more, accrues to a small slew of clubs. Last season, that €161million in UEFA money went to just four teams: Porto, Benfica, Braga and Sporting CP. Other than Braga, those clubs already boasted significantly higher income than the rest of the division; prize money from Europe only widens an existing chasm. There is a reason only Porto, Benfica or Sporting are ever expected to win the title in Portugal, and their continued wealth from competing in Europe is part of it. That is not to lay all the blame at UEFA's door. In the 91-season history of Portugal's top tier, only five clubs have ever been champions — and two of those have only won it once. Between them, Benfica, Porto and Sporting share 89 titles, a dominance that long pre-dates not only hefty European prize money but also the very concept of continental football in the first place. There's also the point that while European-level income might reduce competitive balance back home, it's also in certain cases necessary to keep the standard of those UEFA tournaments at a sufficient level of quality. That's certainly the case in Portugal where, without the monies from the Champions League — both prize money and the profits earned by selling players its clubs can showcase there — they'd have little chance of performing as well in Europe as they often tend to. Further in favour of how wealth is dispensed on the continental stage, revenues from UEFA aren't just limited to prize money from the governing body's three club competitions. Solidarity payments to non-competing teams, numbering in the hundreds, are up to €260million and, particularly in leagues with low turnover, form an integral part of club budgets even as sides elsewhere on the continent earn many times more. Having said that, there has been recent lobbying for UEFA to share the wealth to an even greater extent, ostensibly to improve issues with competitive balance across the continent. As PSG and Inter limber up to go for sporting glory tonight, the clubs' respective bank balances have already benefited from this season's run to the final. There's nothing odd about that; prize money has long formed a part of the game, with the most successful teams earning the most money. Doling out the fortunes that governing bodies receive from organising the sport — across the three main competitions and the pre-season Super Cup meeting of Champions League and Europa League winners, UEFA generated revenues of €3.724billion in the 2023-24 season — to clubs seems only right, though how best to do so is an ongoing debate that may only gain greater prominence as more and more money flows in. Across Europe, money from UEFA both stresses domestic leagues and props them up. Whether it does so in a way that encourages a fair and competitive sport is another matter entirely.
New York Times
31 minutes ago
- New York Times
Exile to ecstasy: How PSG's ultras made their city seen and heard
When Paris Saint-Germain face Inter on Saturday, hoping to lift the Champions League trophy for the first time in their history, they will be supported by a group of fans who have made themselves seen — and heard — throughout the season. Around 3,000 of PSG's ultras will be at the Allianz Arena in Munich for the final. Their colourful and noisy displays have become a defining feature of the team's Champions League run, featuring huge tifos or banners, supporters with megaphones leading songs and drums punctuating the air at their Parc des Princes stadium. Advertisement The PSG ultras have also become instantly recognisable for their diversity. The Black, brown and white faces alongside each other in the stands reflect multicultural Paris and its surroundings. But behind the chants and cheering lies a troubled past. A longstanding struggle between fan groups with radically different politics led to the death of a supporter in 2010. PSG responded by locking all ultras out of their home ground for six years. This is the story of how they returned to the Parc des Princes — and why they stand out among fans of other European teams. PSG's diverse fanbase is no surprise, given the makeup of Paris and its suburbs. According to a 2021 census, 2.5million — or 20.3 per cent — of the 12.3m population in the wider Paris region were immigrants. Another study by France's main statistical institute found that 1.36m French-born Parisians of working age have at least one immigrant parent. Many of these are from north-African or African countries previously under French colonial rule. France's first World Cup win, on home soil, in 1998 seemed to bring together the country in a celebration of diversity — with Zinedine Zidane and company nicknamed the 'Black, Blanc, Beur' (Black, white, Arab) team for their mixed origins. The reality was more complex, as the far-right political party Front National rose to prominence in the years after that triumph and riots broke out in the multicultural Parisian suburbs, known as banlieues, in 2005 and 2023. A club only founded in 1970 via a merger between Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain, PSG's fans reflected those tensions. The Boulogne stand behind the south goal — named after the neighbouring district of Boulogne-Billancourt — became a stronghold for far-right ultras in the 1980s. In 1991, an alternative supporters' stand was set up at the Auteuil end of the pitch, which soon housed a more diverse, left-wing group of fans. Advertisement The two sets of ultras regularly clashed, creating a hostile atmosphere. 'Every single gameweek used to be hell,' says Antoine, a PSG ultra who asked for his surname not to be used so he could speak freely. The tipping point came in March 2010, when a Boulogne ultra named Yann Lorence died in a fight with Auteuil fans outside the ground before a game against Marseille. Then PSG president Robin Leproux's response was to effectively ban all ultra groups in a move known as the 'Plan Leproux'. 'It seemed to me that the only way to fix this problem was to break that disastrous geographical opposition between the Auteuil and Boulogne stands, those territories which belong to one and not the other,' Leproux said in a 2020 interview with French newspaper Le Parisien. For the ultras, it was seen as an overly harsh measure which silenced the stadium. Romain Mabille belonged to the Auteuil ultras and founded the Collectif Ultras Paris (CUP) in May 2016, a larger group made of multiple organisations from that stand. He thinks the problem could have been solved by 'taking away 300 or 400 people' instead of imposing a blanket ban. 'To have two whole stands where everything was finished just because of the problems of a few was very serious,' he tells The Athletic. The ban remained after Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) took control of PSG in June 2011. Mabille led a group of ultras who went to court over Plan Leproux. In 2014, the French data protection agency (CNIL) ruled that two club lists excluding supporters could 'not be legally implemented' as they had 'not been previously authorised by the CNIL'. A government body overturned this in 2016, ordering the state to pay PSG €5,000 after it found one of the investigators who had uncovered the lists at their offices was not 'authorised' to do so. Advertisement With the ultras locked out of the ground, the Auteuil group attended the PSG women's team's games instead, to show their continuing support. In May 2016, 300 of them protested outside the Qatari embassy in Paris, calling for dialogue with the club. PSG's then chief executive Jean-Claude Blanc initiated discussions with the group on behalf of the owners, outlining how his bosses would need assurances on security and would not accept any violence or politics being involved. Then, in the September of that year, PSG allowed a few hundred ultras to return to the Auteuil stand for a Ligue 1 match against Bordeaux. This time, they were part of the wider CUP, rather than simply representing individual groups. 'It was like winning the Champions League — it was our own Champions League,' says Mabille. Since then, the ultras have gained more and more visibility while being encouraged by the club. On PSG's social media pages, you will find footage of players dancing in front of the fans holding flares after the recent Champions League semi-final win against Arsenal and photos of elaborate handmade tifos which take three weeks to a month to create. A post shared by Paris Saint-Germain (@psg) Mabille, one of the two ultra leaders who holds a microphone to coordinate chants, says it is all 'natural'. In much the same way, he says the ultras' diversity is not a topic of discussion within the group but calls it a 'source of pride'. 'When you look at the collective, it's as if you were walking through Paris,' says Mabille. 'There are people from all religions, all colours. You've got rich people, you've got poor people. You've got people from Paris, you've got people from the banlieues around Paris. All that matters to us is that you're a PSG supporter.' Antoine says it comes down to a slogan often repeated by the ultras — la banlieue influence Paname et Paname influence le monde. This translates as: The banlieues influence Paris and Paris influences the world (Paname is French slang for the city). Most of the ultras are from those suburbs, and the same is true of some of the club's best current and former players, including all-time top scorer Kylian Mbappe. Despite supposedly being apolitical, the group unfurled a huge tifo with the words 'Free Palestine' before a Champions League game against Atletico Madrid in November. French interior minister Bruno Retailleau called it 'unacceptable' but UEFA took no action. The CUP responded to say it was not 'a message of hate' and that 'the message which accompanied it was explicit and is an appeal for peace between people'. 'The politics do end up coming out anyway,' says Antoine. 'That's a result of the diversity of the ultras.' The CUP has not always been in unison with the owners since the ultras' return. In 2023, it announced a strike which was called off a week later after PSG gave assurances about ticketing and sticking to their iconic wide red stripe on future shirts. The group whistled Lionel Messi and Neymar when they were at PSG over poor performances and the club's previous policy of signing stars and have opposed their merchandising push in recent years. Advertisement There have been more serious controversies. PSG were forced to close part of the Auteuil stand in October after homophobic chanting aimed at Marseille midfielder Adrien Rabiot during a game against Strasbourg. They were punished with another partial stadium closure in April after displaying banners insulting ex-PSG player Rabiot during a game against Marseille. Mabille himself was handed a one-year suspended prison sentence in 2018 for his alleged involvement in a fight with Reims ultras two years earlier. His lawyer maintained Mabille had not been at the scene and he was acquitted of any charges on appeal in 2020. There is certainly greater harmony in the stands than when the Boulogne and Auteuil ends were fighting each other 15 years ago. The CUP is firmly established as PSG's only ultras group at the Parc des Princes and finds itself reflected in an exciting young group of players led by a popular coach in Luis Enrique. 'We have a chant that goes, 'After so many years of pain and fighting…',' says Mabille. 'If after so many years of pain and fighting, we win the Champions League and we do a good job during the match, we'll all have peace in our hearts and the satisfaction of having succeeded.'
