Ligue 1: The scene illustrates everything that is bad in our football, Daniel Riolo outraged by…

Daniel Riolo, the editor of the After Foot, is outraged by the conditions under which PSG received their French champion trophy discreetly before the Paris FC match on Sunday.

The most secretive trophy presentation in history. Officially crowned after their victory against Lens (0-2) a few days earlier, PSG was honored quietly on the field of their neighbor, Paris FC (2-1), on the final day of Ligue 1. This sequence followed lengthy negotiations and hesitation after Paris FC refused to comply with PSG’s request for a ceremony after the match. The presentation finally took place before the game, in front of the visiting supporters’ stand, amid jeers from the locals while the stadium announcer was promoting the entertainment around the match. These bizarre conditions, according to Daniel Riolo.

“You realize what this means for Ligue 1?”

“It’s normal to laugh about it, but do you realize what this means for Ligue 1?” he questioned on the After Foot on Monday. “The culprit in this story, someone has to take the blame. A Ligue 1 trophy presentation should happen normally and shouldn’t generate a reaction like ‘we will never do it’. We find ourselves in this situation after everything that has happened at the LFP for years. If it had been at a ‘friendly’ club’s field, we would have rolled out the red carpet but the audience would have booed. Why would they boo? Because they are tired of Nasser’s (Al-Khelaïfi, PSG president) dominance. PSG should be applauded, not treated like this.”

“PSG shouldn’t be in a position where they are booed or subjected to banners like in Lens last week ‘Qatar is killing Ligue 1’,” he continued. “If it has come to this, they brought it upon themselves with Vincent Labrune parading around all stadiums as the PSG mascot to cheer as the number one fan. It’s normal to be booed everywhere. What has Ligue 1 become for us to end up presenting the trophy in a corner of a field of a club that is not even an enemy? And then, you play the victim: ‘How are you welcoming us?’ But last week, you treat people poorly just because they dared to write an article in a newspaper to say: ‘Maybe Ligue 1 should be governed differently’. But they refuse all dialogues.”

Daniel Riolo emphasizes the strained relationships between the PSG presidency and other French football stakeholders. “If there was one club that could have done it (host the trophy presentation, NDLR), it’s PFC,” Daniel Riolo added. “The PFC leaders are not enemies of PSG, they are even close in many businesses. Why didn’t they do it? Because Nasser treats people poorly and because Antoine Arnault wrote an article in a newspaper to suggest that the governance should be reviewed. He (Al-Khelaïfi) sees it as a declaration of war.”

“The scene we saw on Sunday illustrates all the negative aspects of our football at the moment,” he concluded. “And this unhealthy dominance that seeks to be unshared and this mentality that says: ‘Everyone must be at my feet’. It’s not normal to have these relationships.”