So When Will the OM-PSG game happen?

By: Sarah | October 26th, 2009

swine fly players

The Classico fixture which was suppose to take place yesterday was postponed due to a Swine Flu Infection that has infected at least 5 members of the PSG team and staff, including Jeremy Clement (left), Ludovic Giuly (centre) and defender Mamadou Sakho (right). For more information see our earlier coverage here and here. The match, which was originally given the green light, was called off at the last moment by the French authorities. Cue, Mayhem.

Now, the drama continues as the two teams can’t agree on when to play the rescheduled game. OM want to play the game as soon as possible– Wednesday. Anigo, OM’s Sporting Director, spoke with OM TV and explained that unless the game is played this week, they will argue that the game shouldn’t be played until February. The November schedule is too tight already with the European fixtures, the Velodrome is unavailable on the open weekends in December since it is being used for the France-New Zealand game (rugby) and OM’s African players will be away on International duty in January.

To accommodate this request, the Ligue will have to make an exception to their rule which requires that games be made up before the winter break. Deschamp has been vocal about the Ligue needing to provide greater support for teams competing in Europe– asking Marseille to play the game before the Winter break would force them to play 10 games in 31 days. In an interview with the press, he has also implied that the cancellation of the game was unfair, hinting at an institutional bias in the French’s Federation for the Parisian club and downplaying the threat of the flu.

PSG have remained firm, insisting that they will not play on Wednesday. PSG will remain in quarantine for 72 hours and won’t even begin training until Wednesday. They have argued that asking their players to play so quickly without training and recovering from illness is a serious injury risk.

The date of the match won’t be announced until Thursday– so it looks like OM has lost that fight (not surprising considering the quarantine doesn’t expire until Wednesday).

And how do you think the League will rule? OM seem to be implying that the league should rule in their favor because it is “not their fault”– but is this really PSG’s fault? Do you think rushing the make-up fixture fair? Is Deschamps out of line in downplaying the severity of the illness?