Olympiacos Fans Cleared for Marseille After French Ban Confusion

By Taki Panos

One Tuesday afternoon, Olympiacos fans heading to Marseille thought the Europa League trip was over. By Tuesday night, French police were saying they could travel after all. In between sat a prefectural order, a furious club statement, a UEFA protest, and a whole lot of hotel bookings hanging in the air. The match is Thursday night at the Stade Vélodrome, kickoff 21:00 local (22:00 in Greece), and as Le Figaro reported with AFP, the police prefecture now says Greek supporters are authorized to make the trip.

If you are catching up, this is Olympiacos of Piraeus, the most titled club in Greek football, with a fan base that stretches well beyond Greece. We have a history of Olympiacos if you want the longer story. Thursday's game is matchday two of the Europa League league phase against Olympique de Marseille, a fixture the French national anti-hooliganism unit had already rated at maximum risk. After last weekend's derby win over Panathinaikos, the Reds were ready for a different kind of away night. Then the paperwork hit.

On Tuesday morning, L'Équipe reported that a prefectural order signed Monday and published Tuesday barred anyone identifying as an Olympiacos supporter, or as a supporter of Red Star Belgrade, from entering the Vélodrome and from circulating or parking in six Marseille arrondissements, including the 8th around the stadium. The window ran from Wednesday, October 14 at 08:00 to Friday, October 16 at 02:00. The away end was set to sit empty. Hundreds of Piraeus ultras were expected, some as early as Wednesday, with about 150 Red Star allies also in the frame.

The stated reason was not a sudden discovery of Greek football. Marseille's lycée protests have stretched local police for days, and the prefecture said it lacked reinforcements for a full away-fan operation. Without those officers, L'Équipe noted, an adapted security plan for Olympiacos fans "is not possible." Complicating the picture further, AEK Athens ultras, historically linked with Marseille groups and rivals of Olympiacos, were not covered by the order and could still be in the city.

Olympiacos did not take it quietly. In a statement carried in English by AlphaNews and covered in French by L'Équipe, the club said it had cooperated for a month with Marseille, UEFA and local police, and that a fan ban had never been raised, even as a possibility. Official notice arrived late. "It is unacceptable that such a decision was taken at the last minute, when some of our supporters are already on the way to Marseille or have already made the trip," the club said (translated from Greek via the English release).

The club sent formal protests to UEFA and to Marseille. UEFA, Olympiacos said, also pressed the French authorities. Both were ignored. The statement asked UEFA to examine compensation for fans already out of pocket and raised safety for supporters already in the city or still planning to go. Olympiacos also pointed to December 2023, when French authorities banned Sevilla fans three days before a Champions League match at Lens, and Spain's club won a same-day suspension from the Council of State. This time, the club argued, there was no time for that path.

Then the story flipped. Late Tuesday, the police prefecture told AFP, as Le Figaro published, that Greek supporters "are not subject to any travel ban to Marseille," contrary to how the club had understood the order. Only the Interior Ministry can issue a nationwide travel ban for visiting fans, the prefecture said, and none had been issued. The local arrêté, it argued, was about people presenting themselves as Olympiacos fans near the stadium and in the city center. With interior security reinforcements now available despite the lycée movement, officials said an adapted plan would welcome Greek fans "in the best conditions."

Greek coverage of French reporting filled in the operational details. Documento, citing RMC Sport, said fans would gather at a designated meeting point and move to the Vélodrome under police escort on dedicated metro trains, with camera-equipped helicopters over the route. Ouest-France's Made in Foot put the expected away contingent around 1,000, under escort, and noted that the day's confusion, plus the club's earlier offer to cancel and refund tickets, may thin the crowd that actually shows up.

So where does that leave a fan who bought a flight last week? Officially, travel is allowed and the match is still on. Practically, the day was a mess of mixed signals: a published order that looked like a stadium and downtown ban, a club communiqué that treated the trip as finished, a UEFA protest, and an evening clarification that the Interior Ministry had never barred the journey. AlphaNews had put the affected traveling group near 3,500 earlier in the day. The later French figures are closer to a thousand in the away section. Either way, a lot of people spent Tuesday refreshing their phones instead of packing scarves.

Here is my measured take. Public order is a real job, and no visiting club gets to overrule a host country's police. Fair enough. What is not fair is springing a near-ban two days before kickoff after a month of meetings that never mentioned it, then spending the evening walking the language back. Fans are not spreadsheets. They book trains, hotels and time off work. If French authorities needed more officers because of the lycée protests, that should have been on the table weeks ago, not after tickets were already stamped. Olympiacos was right to ask UEFA about compensation. The competitive sporting question for Thursday is simpler: can the Reds play a high-risk away night with a smaller, escorted away end and still take points from Marseille?

Kickoff is Thursday, October 15 at 21:00 at the Vélodrome (22:00 Greece time). Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for the result and the fallout. Pack light. Bring patience. And if you are already in Marseille, follow the meeting-point instructions the police actually publish, not the rumor mill.

Sources: L'Équipe, L'Équipe (club reaction), Le Figaro / AFP, AlphaNews, Documento / RMC Sport, Ouest-France Made in Foot.

Image: Olympiacos F.C. crest, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0).