Marseille’s Heinze blasts authorites over fan ban

Marseille’s Argentine international defender Gabriel Heinze on Friday blasted a decision to deny access to visiting fans for Sunday’s crunch showdown with old rivals Paris St Germain at the Parc des Princes, accusing the authorities of “knowing nothing about football.”

“There are things going on which I don’t like. Without fans there is no spectacle – and football is about the fans. I don’t like playing like this (without visiting fans),” said the former PSG, Manchester United and Real Madrid defender after police backed a French League (LFP) move to keep visiting fans out.

“The person who has decided this knows nothing about football and as for it being a ‘clasico’, well it’s the supporters who make a real ‘clasico'”, Heinze said.

He made his comments after the Paris police prefecture wrote to PSG officials saying that, given a perceived threat to public order, the visitors enclosure would be closed to away fans – upholding an earlier decision by the French League.

The initial LFP decision indicated that away fans would not be admitted either to Sunday’s game or March’s return match at Marseille’s Stade Velodrome.

Heinze was biting in his criticism of the decision.

“I agree that security should be paramount in life but in that case why not play in the afternoon, which carries less risk? The match is at 9pm as it’s television which holds the whip hand there and everyone knows that,” he insisted.

A Marseille court was set later Friday to examine the LFP move which came as the latest round in a bout of legal ping-pong between the game’s authorities and the courts.

Last month, a Marseille court suspended an initial LFP decision to ban Marseille fans from their club’s match at Paris Saint-Germain on November 7 after nine Marseille supporters groups contested the legality of the decision.

PSG and reigning champions Marseille are France’s two best-supported teams and recent matches between the clubs have been marred by fan violence.

Supporters clashed in central Marseille in October 2009 after a league game between the clubs was cancelled at short notice due to an outbreak of swine flu in the Parisians’ squad.

Marseille fans were banned from travelling to the return match, in February this year, but rival groups of PSG supporters fought each other after the game and one fan was beaten to death.