The day after a similar message from OM President Pablo Longoria, Dimitri Payet called on Marseille supporters to “exemplarity” Saturday 23 October, on the eve of the clash between OM and PSG. “Tomorrow night, it’s a clasico, we know what that represents for the club, for the city, for us, the Marseillais, the players”, Payet said in a video posted to social media.
“But above all, it must remain a party, it must remain the party of football”, continued the OM striker. “Marseille supporters, we need you – the encouragement, your presence, the tifos, everything will come together – but we also need an example.”
This call for calm comes as Sunday, October 24, the arrival in Marseille of the Paris SG of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé will be the first very big summit of Ligue 1 with more than 65,000 spectators expected according to the club.
“No matter what happens on the pitch, no matter what might happen, the score, we need examples”, he added. “We need you here, don’t forget that we are on borrowed time, we risk losing a point and all the points are important, these are points that we will miss at the end of the season”, he concluded.
Since incidents in the stands during the Angers-Marseille match on September 22, OM is under the threat of a withdrawal of one point in the standings in the event of a repeat offense. Already Friday, October 22, the president of OM launched an appeal for calm, calling for the meeting to remain “a great football moment” and deploring that the start of the season in L1 has been marked “by incidents which tarnish the image of football everywhere in France”.