PSG torn apart over plan for Liverpool Champions League clash as statement released
Lens have released a firm statement expressing their resolve not to have their match against Paris Saint-Germain rescheduled. The Ligue 1 fixture is currently slated for April 11, which falls between both legs of PSG's Champions League quarter-final tie against Liverpool.
The Reds secured their place in the competition's last eight thanks to a 4-1 aggregate victory over Galatasaray in the previous round and will now face a rematch against PSG - the very club who ousted them from the Champions League at the last-16 stage last season.
The first leg between Liverpool and PSG is set to occur at the Parc des Princes on April 8, with the return leg at Anfield less than a week later on April 14 where the victor will advance to the semi-final.
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Recent reports suggest that PSG had lodged a formal request to the Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) - the French football governing body - for their match against Lens to be postponed and rescheduled for later in the season. PSG made a similar plea earlier in the season for their Ligue 1 match against Nantes, which was initially scheduled to be played between both legs of their Champions League last-16 tie against Chelsea.
Liverpool are set to face Fulham in the Premier League on April 11 - the same day that PSG are currently due to take on Lens in Ligue 1.
Lens have now released a statement addressing the speculation and clarifying why they are opposed to having their fixture against PSG rescheduled. It read: "On March 6, the scheduling of the match pitting Racing Club de Lens against Paris Saint-Germain was finalised, formalising a framework to which everyone was then invited to adhere.
"In a spirit of responsibility and restraint, Racing Club de Lens, from the very first requests, made it known to Paris Saint-Germain its intention not to see this date changed. True to a certain idea of sporting stability, the club had also chosen to refrain from any public communication on this subject.
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"However, the recent proliferation of statements, interventions, and various suggestions now leads us to break from this reserve. It does indeed appear to us that a troubling sentiment is taking hold: that of a French championship gradually relegated to the status of an adjustment variable at the whim of the European imperatives of some.
"A singular conception of sporting equity, the equivalent of which is hard to find in other major continental competitions. Changing the date of this match today would mean, for Racing Club de Lens, being deprived of competition for 15 days and then chaining matches every three days - a rhythm that corresponds neither to the one defined at the start of the championship, nor to the resources of a club that could absorb this type of new constraint without consequence.
"It would therefore be understood that the tenth budget in the championship should adapt to the demands of the most powerful, in the name of interests that, evidently, now extend beyond the domestic framework, which has already been lightened in recent seasons (L1 reduced to 18 clubs, discontinuation of the Coupe de la Ligue).
"Beyond this particular case, the question raised is more fundamental: that of the respect due to the competition itself. For it is permissible to wonder when, on its own soil, the championship sometimes seems relegated behind other ambitions, however legitimate they may be.
"Racing Club de Lens remains committed to equity, the clarity of rules, and respect for all stakeholders. Simple principles, for a loyal and respected French football."