seen from Spain, a one-sided rivalry between PSG and Barça

Having become regular adversaries in C1 and marked by the memorable comeback of 2017, the two clubs have developed an enmity, but the Catalans do not yet consider Paris as a rival.

Paris Saint-Germain is preparing to face FC Barcelona in the Champions League for the eleventh time since passing under the Qatari flag in 2011, Wednesday April 10 at the Parc des Princes. A now classic poster for supporters of the two clubs, some of whom have learned to hate each other over the years, marked by the famous “remontada” of March 8, 2017. If since then, the “Puta Barça” are taken with full force in the Auteuil bend, the Catalan aficionados are far from maintaining a visceral hatred towards their opponent.

“There is no PSG-Barça rivalryposes Melvin, French supporter of FC Barcelona and member of the Penya Blaugrana de Paris, a group of supporters of the Catalan club based in the capital. We already have enough rivalries, whether it’s with Real Madrid or with Espanyol Barcelona.” At the Camp Nou, or at the Barcelona Olympic stadium where Barça is playing this season, the few chants against the Parisian club are often taken up by the youngest, fed up with the hatred maintained on social networks, or the tourists. Having become a member of Barça, Melvin believes that this rivalry is “one-way”against a backdrop of poorly digested remontada: “It marked their image in the long term and PSG became a loser in Europe from that event.”

Two models in competition rather than a rivalry

Since then, Paris Saint-Germain has not spared the club responsible for its historic humiliation: purchase of Neymar the following summer even if it means paying his release clause of 222 million euros, recruitment of Lionel Messi, Barcelona’s ultimate idol, after that he was unable to extend with the club of his heart… Events “dramatic” for Laia Bonals Ruiz, journalist following FC Barcelona for the newspaper El Periodicoagainst which Barça had “trouble getting up”. She believes that there is competition between the two clubs today, more than rivalry, linked to “very tense relations between the two clubs since the transfer of Neymar”. Two clubs which according to Laia Bonals Ruiz “can no longer work together”.

She agrees with Melvin, the socio of the Paris Penya: if there is a rivalry with Paris Saint-Germain, she does not directly target the Parisian institution, but rather its model. That of a club-state with almost unlimited liquidity and which owes its European success to petrodollars. “There is a certain contempt towards these nouveau riche who respect nothing, take out money and build a team without really having an identity”, supports the Barça supporter. Laia Bonals Ruiz goes even further: “The rivalry does not exist because PSG represents another model, but because it is not modeled on the Barça model. The members are very attached to the human and social values ​​of the club, which are at the heart of opposite of what Paris can be in its way of doing things.”

“You feel like you’re not playing by the same rules.”

Melvin, French supporter of FC Barcelona

at Franceinfo: sport

A model which today shows its sporting and financial limits, with FC Barcelona obliged to mortgage part of its assets to restart the winning machine. “We, the money, we had it and we did anything with it, concedes those who remember the impulsive signings of Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann. But they have the right to make all these mistakes, they just have to take out the checkbook.” Joan Laporta, president of Barça, has recalled this several times during press conferences which are sometimes very aggressive towards an opponent he rarely names. Namely Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, Qatari leader of PSG who is far from sticking with the image that Barcelona socios have of a president, having to represent the DNA of the club and the Catalan identity.

A police escort still expected

Posted at the Parc des Princes since 2011, Nasser Al-Khelaïfi also likes to tickle his counterpart, by regularly recruiting from the Catalans, even in the youth categories (Xavi Simons and Kays Ruiz). The other way to crush your opponent is, from his throne as president of the ECA (European club association), to work against the Superleague project on which the Blaugrana giant is counting to replenish its coffers.

Episodes of tension which do not, however, influence the treatment of such a double confrontation by the Catalan press. “We treat PSG as a normal opponent, as equals, with all the respect we can have for their progress so far in the Champions League.”, judge Laia Bonals Ruiz, who has not written the slightest article on the comeback since the announcement of the draw. At the same time, a double confrontation, overlooked by the Parisians in 2021, came to cover the affront.

Melvin, who grew up in Paris in a Spanish family, criticizes the “storytelling” maintained by the French media. For example, L’Equipe titled “More than a rivalry” on the front page, Tuesday. “PSG had all its European prestige to build and to exist as a top European club, it also had to build on adversity. I think it’s important for supporters to say that if you create a rivalry with a big historic club, you also exist as a big club.” He takes the example of the press release from the Collectif Ultras de Paris, which invited Parisian supporters to make the Parc des Princes “a more than hostile territory” For “the ignoble Barcelona so often favored by arbitration”.

“I thought they had come out of the comeback and were growing as a club in their own right”regrets Melvin, who said more “shocked” And “surprised” by the press release from Parisian supporters than seeing Mona Lisa wearing a Blaugrana jersey on Barça’s social networks. For Laia Bonals Ruiz, no rivalry in this initiative, just a way of “show respect for French and Parisian culture”. But if we assure Barcelona that respect will be required, including at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening, the animosity fueled by the comeback on the Parisian side will force Melvin and the 2,000 other Barcelona supporters to return to the stadium under police escort. .