Le Classique a perennial microcosm of country’s state

Opinion

Le Classique is a powder keg at the best of times.

With age-old fissures dividing south from north, Hellenized from Frankish and working-class from cosmopolitan, the football version of Marseille vs. Paris Saint-Germain can ignite from the slightest spark.

Their December 1992 confrontation and its more than 50 fouls is remembered as “la boucherie,” and as recently as 2020 a full-scale brawl produced five ejections, a four-match ban for spitting and allegations of racist and homophobic remarks.

Little wonder travelling fans have been prevented from attending Marseille-PSG matches since 2015 — and that no provision was made for the next one: Sunday at the Vélodrome (1:45 p.m., FuboTV).

Once again, French football’s national derby has been classified as “level 5” — the highest danger threshold — by the National Division for the Fight Against Hooliganism (DNLH). By now, they can make that judgement in their sleep.

So there won’t be supporters making their way to la ville de pêcheurs, or “fishing village,” from la ville lumière, “the city of light.” Though even if they were allowed to, they’d perhaps find that the trains weren’t running.

The bloquons tout, or “block everything,” movement has been living up to its name since the collapse of François Bayrou’s government last week.

The ex-prime minister had proposed austerity measures and holiday cancellations to tackle what he labelled a “life-threatening” debt crisis, and after losing a confidence vote he was replaced by Sébastien Lecornu, who will now be tasked with pushing through French President Emanuel Macron’s spending cuts.

“L’austérité” is a menacing term among the working French — a large number of whom are members in the unions that organized more than 250 demonstrations and brought as many as a million people to the streets on Thursday. A spokesperson for the union CGT told La Marseillaise that around 80,000 people had demonstrated in Marseille.

Fiercely protective of hard-won social programs, they’re calling for cuts to corporate subsidies and fairer taxation of the wealthy — the sort of highly emotive issues unlikely to be boxed up for the weekend’s football. Quite the opposite, in fact.

In addition to Le Classique, the upcoming round of Ligue 1 fixtures includes the similarly charged Derby du Nord between Lens and Lille (Saturday, 2:05 p.m., FuboTV). Given its classification as “level 4” by the DNLH, the limited number ticketed Lille supporters will have police escorts from the moment they arrive at the station.

On Friday, a Lens ultras group took to Facebook to rouse the club’s fans ahead of the match. Nothing to see there; the post was harmless, and this is a rivalry that — while colourful and hard-fought — is rarely violent.

But it was a certain line in the statement’s first paragraph that provided some insight into the general mood ahead of Ligue 1’s fifth matchday: “keep alive this passion, this tension, which drives us this week.”

Such passion and tension was provoked by the National Assembly and lived out in the streets of France. That it’s being invited into the stadiums is unsurprising. It doesn’t need an invitation.

Returning to Marseille, Les Olympiens are hoping to record a rare triumph over Les Parisiens — winner of four successive titles and the reigning European champions.

Backed by Qatari money and packed with eight Ballon d’Or nominees, PSG represents the wealth and entitlement those tens of thousands of Marseillais came out to protest just a few days before kickoff. Even more than in Lens, their passion and tension will still be very much alive on Sunday.

Regarding the actual match, PSG will be without injured quartet Ousmane Dembélé, Désiré Doué, Lucas Beraldo and João Neves — absences that will give manager Luis Enrique a selection headache while providing the hosts with some much needed self belief.

Marseille, for its part, is coming off a narrow loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League and drubbed Lorient 4-0 the last time out in Ligue 1.

Head coach Roberto de Zerbi is finally stabilizing a squad disrupted by an August fistfight between teammates Adrien Rabiot and Jonathan Rowe that resulted in both players being transferred out of the club. Forward Mason Greenwood has scored twice and provided three assists already this season, and the loan acquisition of Inter Milan defender Benjamin Pavard has every look of being a coup.

Goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli, who was exceptional against Madrid, was the player selected for Friday’s pre-Classique press conference. He told reporters it would be a “special” match that “practically all of France will be watching.”

Watching, and feeling.

Those fissures that divide Marseille from Paris are being experienced, in one way or another, by much of the country. Football has a way of highlighting such social movements.

Even without opposing fans to turn up the heat, Stade Vélodrome will be a cauldron of fury on Sunday, and its ire will be trained squarely on the capital.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

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