Posted on April 5, 2024
Updated April 5, 2024
Benfica and Olympique will likely not see opposition fans during the Europa League quarter-finals. Our colleagues from RMC propose on Friday that the Bouches-du-Rhône police should opt for a travel ban on Portuguese fans during Benfica's match at the Orange Velodrome, next Thursday, April 18, in the quarter-final second leg. This decision, if confirmed, could also be applied “against” Marseille fans, who could therefore be prevented from traveling to Lisbon, next Thursday, April 11, for the first leg of the quarter-finals of the European competition.
200 to 300 violent supporters within Benfica extremist groups
Multiple reasons should push the authorities to such a decision, Especially the fact that intelligence services identified between 200 and 300 violent supporters within Benfica extremist groups, as put forward by the RMC. The Red Devils, with far-right sensibilities, will be targeted in the same way as the No Name Boys, affiliated with a Croatian group considered to be troublemakers (Torcida Split). The authorities will fear the reaction of Marseille fans, while they have ideas that contradict those advocated by Benfica fans, a club that attracts many fans during its away matches. In the context of the Vigipirate plan, which was raised to the level of an “emergency attack”, Police Director Pierre-Edouard Collex decided to impose a travel ban on Benfica fans.
RMC says OM was informed of the decision and did not necessarily take it well. If the travel ban on Marseille fans is not yet official, it will still be a matter of concern and Marseille will work on the file, hoping, no doubt, that the opposite will happen.. Meanwhile, Jean-Louis Gasset's players will try to put an end to their negative dynamic of 3 consecutive defeats in all competitions, this Friday evening at Lille, in the French First Division (9 p.m.).
