Marseille vs PSG league game postponed over swine flu

Police and Paris St Germain supporters clashed yesterday after the Ligue 1 game against Olympique Marseille was postponed and the whole PSG team quarantined when several players were diagnosed with H1N1 flu.

The decision was taken "on the formal recommendation of the (national) commission of medical experts", the French Professional League (LFP) said on its website.

Police and PSG fans then clashed near Le Vieux Port in the historical centre of Marseille. The match between the Ligue 1 arch-rivals had been scheduled to start at 21.00 at the Stade Velodrome.

A Reuters reporter said the police, who had been deployed in numbers because the match was regarded as a high-risk game, used tear gas to clear the PSG fans who were smashing shop windows.

Police sources said clashes also erupted at the main rail station where PSG supporters were boarding trains to go back to Paris.

Other PSG fans travelling back by bus ransacked motorway services in Peypin, north of Marseille, where eight people were detained, the police sources added.

The national commission also decided that all PSG players and staff members would be quarantined for the next 72 hours.

The three PSG players involved were not named by the LFP but according to French media, Ludovic Giuly, Mamadou Sakho and Jeremy Clement were tested for the H1N1 virus after complaining of high fever, coughing and sore throats.

Coach Antoine Kombouare had told the club's website on Saturday that he might have to do without the trio for the match.

Several cases of H1N1 flu have been reported among sportsmen in France and two rugby championship games were postponed in August after six players and a coach of the Castres club were diagnosed with the virus.