OM-PSG: November 20

By: Sarah | October 29th, 2009

classico-paris-marseille

The LFP Office announced today that the Classico will be played on Friday, November 20th. The original Ligue 1 game that weekend against Sochaux has been pushed back until Wednesday, 12/2. If necessary, OM can request that the Sochaux match be rescheduled for a later date (since they will be preparing to play Real).

Updated Schedule

Here is the new schedule for OM (taken from the official OM website):

Saturday, October 31: OM – Toulouse (L1 – Matchday 12)
Tuesday, November 3: OM – Zurich (Champions League – M4)
Sunday, November 8: Lyon – OM (L1 – Matchday 13)
International: Ireland – France (November 14) and France – Ireland (November 18)
Friday, November 20th: OM – PSG (L1 – Matchday 10)
Wednesday, November 25: AC Milan – OM (Champions League – J5)
Saturday, November 28: Lens – OM (L1 – Matchday 15)
Wednesday, December 2: OM – Sochaux (L1 – Matchday 14)
Saturday, December 5: Nice – OM (L1 – Matchday 16)
Tuesday, December 8: OM – Real Madrid (Champions League – J6)
Saturday, December 12: OM – Boulogne (L1 – Matchday 17)
Wednesday, December 16: Lorient – OM (L1 – Matchday 11)
Saturday, December 19: St Etienne – OM (L1 – Matchday 18)
Wednesday, December 23: OM – Auxerre (L1 – Matchday 19)

Keeping check back for additional updates and requests from OM to reschedule.

The Backstory and Reactions

To catch up on the build-up to this agreement please refer to our earlier posts here and here. But, the good news is that both teams have been able to agree upon a date that allows a Classico match-up this year! The Ligue has agreed to alter the schedule for the future Matchday 14 games (OM vs. Sochaux and PSG vs. Boulogn) and allow those games to be played on Wednesday, December 2 instead of the regular scheduled weekend of November 21/22. However, Marseille may request the Matchday 14 game to be rescheduled again if their match against Real Madrid shapes up to be a decisive match. On that occassion, OM can petition the league to delay the Sochaux match further in order to support the Ligue’s and OM’s success at the European level.

Given the tension and accusations made by OM in the build-up to this meeting, it has ended pretty amicably. The following statements were made after the meeting by the major players involved:

“This is the first possible date,” a statement from the Ligue de Football Professionel read. “It solves the problem of the deferral of this big Ligue 1 fixture.”

On exiting the meeting, Jean-Claude Dassier, president of les Phoceens simply told the press, “The date suits us.”

Meanwhile, Robin Leproux, president of PSG, didn’t pass comment.

While PSG did not comment about the meeting, I’m willing to cut them slack since their press people have undoubtedly been overwhelmed by the barrage of conspiracy theories and accusations over the past week.

Regardless, I’m just happy that a new date is set so that we can put this drama behind us and focus on beating Toulouse this weekend!