Luis Enrique hits back after PSG’s rivals refuse to play match in Paris

Luis Enrique has had his say on the drama around PSG’s rearranged match with Rennes.

PSG were meant to be hosting Rennes on Sunday night in their Ligue 1 opener but the Parc des Princes pitch failed a safety check.

The grass has been savaged by climate change and the historic number of heatwaves in France, so the match was going to be suspended.

However, the LFP then agreed to move the match to Rennes’ Roazhon Park.

Naturally, it was assumed that the return match later in the season would accordingly be switched from Roazhon Park to the Parc des Princes, but Rennes see no reason.

Rennes demand reverse match is also at home

Club chairman Nicolas de Tavernost told Ouest-France: “My position is that this return match must be in Rennes, for a whole host of reasons.

“I am in charge of the interests of Stade Rennais and, together with the management, we will defend the position that the lack of maintenance of a pitch is not an exceptional circumstance . There are regulations: they must be applied.

“We are not at fault in this matter; things need to be put into perspective.

“It would have been quite detrimental, in terms of revenue for all the clubs, to start with eight matches instead of nine, without the flagship match of this first round. All of this argued in favour of reversing the order.”

PSG coach Luis Enrique has now responded to the comments and he surprisingly disagrees.

Luis Enrique disagrees on principles

“We like to play attacking, attractive football, and for that you need a pitch in the best possible condition,” he said.

“I don’t know the regulations, but when you start a competition, there’s a very important principle: equality between all teams. It’s not possible to play two away matches against the same team.”

Confirming that things would be fixed for their next home match, PSG said in a statement: “The recent heatwave, following the successive and exceptional heatwaves that hit the Paris region this summer, has significantly accelerated the deterioration of the Parc des Princes pitch, which is now particularly damaged.

“We have already identified a solution for replacing the pitch at the Parc des Princes for upcoming matches, starting with the home game against AS Monaco on September 4th.”