Olympiacos Refuse Marseille Tickets, Tell Fans Not to Travel

By Taki Panos

The French police said yes. Olympiacos said no, thank you. Late on Tuesday night, a few hours after authorities in Marseille reversed their own ban on Greek supporters, the Piraeus club put out a furious statement telling fans already in the city to leave safely, telling everyone else not to travel, and announcing it will not collect its ticket allocation for Thursday's Europa League match against Olympique de Marseille at the Stade Vélodrome, as in.gr reported. The statement landed at 23:38 Greek time. The away end, it seems, will stay empty after all.

If you missed the first act, we covered the day of ban confusion on Tuesday night. Quick version: a prefectural order published Tuesday morning barred anyone identifying as an Olympiacos or Red Star Belgrade supporter from the Vélodrome and from the streets around it and in the city center, per Athletiko. By the evening, the police prefecture told AFP that Greek fans faced no travel ban at all, as Le Figaro published. For readers new to the club, here is our history of Olympiacos, the most decorated side in Greek football.

Olympiacos did not see the reversal as good news. It saw it as the problem. The club said the French authorities had overturned their own decision just ten hours after making it, and it did not hold back on the wording. "This is an unthinkable about-face, which irreparably exposes the competent authorities and creates even greater insecurity and danger for our fans," the statement said (translated from Greek). The club called the handling of the whole affair "unprecedented, unacceptable and dangerous."

The statement also laid out the damage, as the club sees it. Thousands of Olympiacos fans, following the original ban, cancelled flights, hotels and travel plans and took a real financial hit. Hundreds who were already in Marseille headed back to Greece, and others called off their trips, according to the full text carried by iefimerida. Now, two days before kickoff, the club argued, the same authorities that cited serious public order risks want to let in a much smaller group of Greek fans, into a city they themselves described as facing a serious risk of violent clashes.

That is where Olympiacos drew the line. The club said there are no longer adequate guarantees for the safety of its supporters, whether they are already in Marseille or were planning to go, and that it would not expose them to danger under any circumstances. "The protection of human life and the physical integrity of our fans is non-negotiable and overrides any other consideration," the statement read (translated from Greek). In France, Ouest-France's Made in Foot reported the same bottom line: despite the prefecture's change of course, the Greek club refuses to send its fans to the Vélodrome.

There is more in the statement than a travel warning. Olympiacos said it will legally back any collective court action its supporters bring against the French authorities, or anyone else responsible, to seek compensation for their losses. It will also formally ask UEFA to make sure the section set aside for Olympiacos fans stays empty for the entire match and is not handed to supporters of another team. The club added that the credibility of UEFA competitions should not be undermined by this kind of back and forth.

That last request is not random. French and Greek reports have pointed out that AEK Athens ultras, historic rivals of Olympiacos, have friendship ties with organized Marseille supporters. RMC Sport named Marseille's Commando Ultra 84 group and noted that the fixture had been rated at the top of France's risk scale by the national anti-hooliganism unit. An empty away section is one thing. An away section filled with the wrong colors would be a very different picture, and the club clearly wanted to rule that out early.

The background to all of this is not really about football. Marseille police have been stretched for weeks by the high school protest movement in France, and the prefecture said it needed security reinforcements before it could decide on the away fans, as Le Figaro reported. RMC Sport also linked the original problem to those protests, which have kept local officers busy. With reinforcements lined up, officials said Greek supporters would be welcomed "in the best conditions." By then, though, the club had lost faith in the process.

Meanwhile, the football part goes on. Olympiacos flew to Marseille on Wednesday morning, and coach Imanol Alguacil has 22 players available, per in.gr's squad report. Leon Bailey is not among them after feeling discomfort in Tuesday's training, as Filathlos also reported. Kostas Fortounis is in the traveling party, and the group arrives in France fresh from the 1-0 derby win over Panathinaikos.

So what does Thursday look like? A home crowd on one side and, if UEFA agrees to the club's request, an empty block on the other. Olympiacos will play matchday two of the Europa League league phase without its traveling support, which is not how anyone in Piraeus pictured this trip when tickets went on sale. For fans in Greece, kickoff is 22:00. For anyone abroad who had flights booked, the club's advice is simple: do not make the trip.

Here is my measured take. I understand both sides more than the shouting suggests. A host city's police have a hard job, and nobody wants a night like this to end in a hospital ward. But a club cannot plan around a ban in the morning and a welcome in the evening, and fans cannot either. Olympiacos chose the cautious option, and when you tell supporters to stay away from a match, you are choosing safety over noise. It costs the team something real on the pitch. I think it is still the defensible call. The French side of this needs a much better explanation than it has given so far.

Kickoff at the Vélodrome is Thursday, October 15 at 21:00 local time, 22:00 in Greece. Keep an eye on our Greek Sports section for the result, and for whatever UEFA says about that empty away end. Quiet stands. Loud statements. Let's see if the football can speak for itself.

Sources: in.gr, iefimerida, Ouest-France Made in Foot, Le Figaro / AFP, RMC Sport, Athletiko, Filathlos.

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