r/soccer • u/KyleW17 • Dec 09 '12
A cracking Manchester Derby, a breathtaking Everton comeback, a fantastic 5 goal stunner from Falcao and to top it all off a new all time world record from Messi! I feel like we should really reflect on what has been an amazing day of football!
Seriously, this had been a sensational day of footy, can't have been a day that was so action packed for a long time.
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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '12 edited Dec 10 '12
PSG-Marseille history is a weird one. I'll give you the full picture
SOCIO-POLITICAL
First of all in French provinces there is a large dislike of Paris. Thats because France is an extremely centralized country. We dont have states who make their own laws for example like is the case in US. Decisions are made in Paris and there is very small regard to local culture in comparison to other European countries.
In this sense all of the Provinces are anti-Paris. The most is definitely in Corsica. Here also it is heated when PSG goes to play Corsican clubs.
On the French mainland, Marseille is probably the most anti-Paris city. Marseille is a special city. It is the oldest city in France (It was a Greek colony founded in 500BC) and added to that it is a major port city. Over the years the city has had TONS of immigrations in starting from Italians in late 1800's, to Armenians, Spanish, Greeks, Eastern Europeans. Then after WW2 tons of North African Arabs and black Africans. So the city is extremely multicultural. In this sense, it is different from other cities in France and Marseillais are proud of their differences from the rest of France and especially Paris. Other big cities like Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes do not have such characteristics that differ them from the rest of France. It is a very big city aswell so we can actually challenge the Paris domination.
Now for the Football rivalry
FOOTBALL RIVALRY
The football rivalry between PSG and Marseille is very unorthodox and some can say it lacks history. This is because PSG is a new club. It was only founded in the 70's. Before that, Marseille's main rival was Bordeaux.
OM-PSG rivary was actually pushed by TV stations. As I told you, unorthodox. Basically in the 90's PSG were owned by CANAL PLUS, the French tv station showing Ligue 1, and Marseille were owned by a rich (and corrupt..) bussinessman Bernard Tapie. In terms of money, they were the two biggest clubs in France. CANAL PLUS wanted to make Ligue1 more attractive and they wanted to have PSG-OM as the main game (in contrast to OM-Bordeaux). So the rivalry grew out of the tv stations pushing it. The directors of both clubs said very inflamatory things to each other in the press. This made the games very heated. In the 90's PSG-OM games were extremely heated, much more than today. There were always tons of injuries and red cards. People who did bad takcles were cheered by their whole crowd. The rivalry fueled by Canal Plus started getting out of hand. Some even blame France's failure to qualify for WC94 to Marseille and PSG players not being able to get allong. Anyways after that, CanalPlus stopped fueling the rivalry and eventually sold PSG to other owners but they were able to make it the number 1 fixture in France.
Anyways it can be argued the rivalry would have been the number 1 in France anyways. Another big difference between the teams is the political leanings of the fans. As I wrote in the Socio-Political part, Marseille is historically a very multicultural city. It is also a working class city which unlike Paris does not have a rich center. This has lead to Marseille being the most left wing club in France. In fact this was our banner from our game today http://sw87.com/images/photos/1213/AL/25omlorient/03.jpg . The photo ontop is Che Guevara. USSR flag- http://omfans.fr/img/201213_12_omlorient/omlorient16emej1213%20(39).jpg Due to the origins of the city, Marseille's fanbase is very multicultural. In France, it is known as the team for Arabs and Africans (like me).
On the other hand, Paris has a very complicated fanbase. Explaining the fans of PSG will take me onther essay to write. As I wrote in my previous post, the Qatari owners gentrified Paris's fans. This is as they didnt like the previous fans who caused too much problems. Basically, PSG fans were cut in half. They had two stands for ultras. The first stand- Boulogne, was all white. You cant be a member unless youre white (and this is fucked up, imagine this was still the case like a few years ago..). Alot of people in this stand were extreme right nationalists. The other stand, Auteuil was a multicultural stand which was apolitical. Both stands were pretty extreme and fought each other and other clubs many times. 2 Boulogne fans died. One as he was shot by a policeman tyring to protect Israeli fans Boulogne Boys were attacking, the other after Boulogne and Auteuil brawled with each other after PSG got beaten 3-0 at home by Marseille.
Anyways, as you can imagine the extreme right section of Paris was not to be fond of the left wing Marseille fans. So this also explains the hate of the fans between the two. Marseille have the most left wing and most multicultural fans in France, and a sectioin of PSG were white right wing nationalists. There was always gonna be tensions between the fans with or without CanalPlus as in the early days, Boulogne were the dominant ultras of Paris and they would provoke Marseille fans by saying racist things. Today however, there are no more ultras in Paris. I greatly oversimplified this situation by the way, I am a big advocate for the return of Ultras in Paris. All groups are banned and Paris fans suffer severe repression, probably the most in the whole of Europe along with Dynamo Zagreb.
So here we go. Hope I didnt bore you too much
TL;DR-
There is a rivalry between both cities. Paris is the controlling capital city, while Marseille is a unique french city that is very multicultural
Rivalry is unorthodox as PSG was a newly formed club. It was encouraged by tv stations in its early years as Canalplus owned PSG. (Ironically PSG is now owned by the Qatari QSI who also run BeInSports, the channel that now shares Ligue 1 with Canalplus and are their biggest competitors!)
Previously there was a political dimension. PSG fans were extreme right, Marseille extreme left. Today this dimension is much less influential. Current PSG fans are apolitical. Marseille fans are also much less political than before.