PSG sporting director's Hillsborough comments over bid to move key league fixture criticised by fans
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French giants play Liverpool over two legs and are bidding to have their Ligue 1 meeting with Lens movedThe sporting director of European champions Paris Saint-Germain has been criticised for suggesting his team should have a key match postponed due to the impact of the Hillsborough anniversary. Luis Campos told French radio station RMC that PSG have requested to have their away game against Lens on Saturday, April 11, in between the two legs of their Champions League clash with Liverpool, postponed.Lens have opposed the postponement but the decision will lie with the Ligue de Football Professionnel board which will convene today, Thursday.
Campos said PSG does not hold a grudge against Lens but believes postponing the potential title decider to help PSG's Champions League preparations will benefit French football as a whole.He also implied PSG would not have requested the postponement had UEFA chosen different dates for the Champions League quarter final ties against Liverpool.He told RMC: "At first, we would have liked to play the UCL on Tuesday (April 7), then on Wednesday (April 15). But Liverpool can’t play on April 15, we had to respect their history, because it's a tragic date for the club."He added: "PSG's position is very clear and the fruit of a great reflection by all of us for the advantages and disadvantages that it brings, not only to PSG but to French football."April 15 is the anniversary of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, in which 97 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed.
Respect our history by not dragging this tragic event into pathetic football politics and milking it for domestic advantage."Writing on X, formerly Twitter, the same fan also said that the Reds are due to play against Fulham at 5.30pm on April 11 - the same date as PSG's Lens fixture.The All Things Liverpool account added: "Did PSG just use Hillsborough as an excuse to try and get the Lens game postponed?.... No, that can't be right..." Others described the comments as "astonishing" and "disgusting".The ECHO has approached Liverpool for comment.Lens said earlier this week: "It does indeed appear to us that a troubling sentiment is taking hold: that of a French championship gradually relegated to the status of an adjustment variable at the whim of the European imperatives of some.