LFP Hands PSG Venue Win and Rennes Plans Appeal

The League's Competitions Commission announced this Friday that the next match between PSG and Rennes will take place at the Parc des Princes, following the reversal of the first-leg match on Sunday, Aug. 23 (2-2). The decision does not suit Stade Rennais, which will act.

The change of venue for the next Rennes-PSG match is not going over well in Brittany. The LFP’s Competitions Commission decided to reverse the Round 23 Ligue 1 fixture between the two teams. Initially scheduled at Rennes, it will be played at the Parc des Princes on March 6.

As a reminder, the first-leg match was scheduled to be held at the Parc des Princes on Sunday, Aug. 23, but due to the unplayable condition of the Parisian pitch and in agreement with the Breton club, it took place at Roazhon Park (2-2) on the agreed date.

In any case, the commission’s recent decision will be contested by the Red and Blacks. In a statement released Friday afternoon, the Breton club announced it was considering an appeal before the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF).

“While awaiting receipt of the full decision and its reasoning, Stade Rennais F.C. is now considering referring the matter to the Conciliators’ Conference of the National Olympic and Sports Committee in order to assert its rights,” the club warned.

This LFP decision comes against the backdrop of a dispute over the regulations. “A reversal has no effect on the rest of the schedule, except in exceptional circumstances,” the text of the rules explains. The summer’s heat wave episodes were therefore judged as “exceptional circumstances” by the League.

While it decided that the return match will take place at the Parc des Princes, the LFP also handed PSG a fine of 150,000 euros for its inability to host the match and to find a fallback stadium. “There may be a heat wave in March,” Franck Haise simply reacted on Friday, preferring to wait for “an official response from the club.”

In other news, PSG are set to sell academy product Ibrahim Mbaye to Aston Villa for a record fee. The deal surpasses Mamadou Sakho's €23m transfer.

The press estimates Mbaye's transfer at 55 million euros, including bonuses, and the player who holds the biggest contract ever signed by an academy product will thus become the most expensive club-trained player ever sold by Paris.