Rennes Supporters Mock PSG Pitch Problems With Banner

In addition to discussing the end of PSG’s transfer window, Luis Campos, speaking on Ligue 1+, addressed the reversal of the match against Rennes, which was ultimately played in Brittany on Sunday evening (2-2). Rennes supporters also reacted to this reversal and took a jab at PSG.

Asked on Saturday about the reversal of the PSG-Rennes match, which became Rennes-PSG, Luis Enrique assured that it changed nothing about his approach to the game: “For us, it changes nothing in our preparation because we prepare every match the same way. Whether it’s at home or away, we aim to be as competitive as possible. It’s true that it’s different, and you have to adapt.”

Questioned then about the return match, which Rennes still wishes to host, contrary to PSG, which wants to play it at the Parc des Princes, Enrique had a firm opinion: “I don’t know the regulations, but when you start a competition, there is a very important principle, which is equality among all the teams. It’s not possible to play twice away against the same team.”

The only high-ranking Parisian executive present at Roazhon Park on Sunday evening, Campos, did not talk about the return match against Rennes to the broadcaster Ligue 1+, but did revisit the reversal of the first-leg match: “It was an exceptional circumstance, like, for example, last year when we went to play in Marseille. We were on the road, we thought we were going to play in the evening, then a storm was announced, and we returned to Paris. We then went back to Marseille, and we lost the match, but that’s how it is; these are exceptional circumstances that exist in football. And in this case (referring to the reversed PSG-Rennes), I think the pitch was not in condition after having looked at it closely, above all it would have jeopardized the physical integrity of the players, that was our fear. I think it was the best solution for Rennes to host the match. Well, we’re here, thank you, and we’re going to play our match.”

The fact of mentioning “exceptional circumstances” is not neutral, since PSG will seek to convince the LFP competitions committee this Friday, Aug. 28, that the repeated heat waves of the summer of 2026 are “exceptional circumstances” and are responsible for the poor state of the Parc des Princes pitch.

The LFP regulations provide, in fact, that in the case of a reversal, the rest of the schedule remains unchanged, except precisely for “exceptional circumstances” to justify the reversal beforehand. PSG is going to play that card, while Rennes is trying to explain that the heat wave affected many cities and that PSG is responsible for the poor state of its green rectangle.

“There will be time to talk about it in committee at the League (on Aug. 28),” the new chairman of the board of directors of Stade Rennais, Nicolas de Tavernost, confided to Ouest-France last Friday. “My position is that this return match must be in Rennes, for a whole host of reasons. One of them is that maintaining a pitch in the summer is not, for me, an exceptional circumstance. It’s something that was imposed on us, and we made sure to respond to it as favourably as possible, in the interest of the League, of football, of the public.”

The Rennes supporters, unsurprisingly, share the same opinion as their executive and displayed, on Sunday evening before Rennes-PSG, a banner critical of the Parisian club: “Respect for clubs and supporters is like its pitch; it needs upkeep.”

Parisians and Rennais will therefore meet this Friday before the LFP competitions committee to settle the venue for the return match scheduled for the weekend of March 6-7, the 23rd matchday of Ligue 1.