• Four ultras from PSG appeared this Wednesday for having stolen the tarpaulin from the Rennes supporters of the RCK in September 2021.

  • Penalties ranging from ten months suspended prison sentence to one year firm were requested against them.

  • The deliberation will be delivered on December 21.

In the world of ultras, having a tifo, the symbol of the group's identity, stolen is the ultimate humiliation.

It is for these facts, preceded by violence, that four PSG supporters appeared this Wednesday before the Criminal Court of Rennes.

The four individuals, aged 28 to 40, are accused of having stolen the tarpaulin of the Rennes ultras of the Roazhon Celtic Kop (RCK) and of having assaulted one of its members.

The facts date back to the night of September 22 to 23, 2021, just hours after a meeting between Rennes and Clermont.

Arrived by car from the Paris region, the four defendants would have shown up during the evening at the home of the victim's parents in Breteil, west of Rennes, waiting for him for several hours in the dark.

Returning home a little before 2 a.m., the member of the RCK, who was in charge of the tifos of the ultras group, would then, according to his version, have been physically attacked by two men "hooded and gloved", receiving a blow telescopic baton and tear gas.

His assailants then broke into the trunk of his car to seize three sports bags containing tarpaulins and RCK flags.

Identified thanks to the demarcation of their telephones, four suspects had been arrested in this case in February in the Paris region.

“We did this without thinking”

Three of them appeared on the stand, the last being absent for medical reasons.

Not very talkative, they claim that they had landed that evening in the Breton capital to party with friends.

But during the evening, the plans would have changed after a meeting with a mysterious individual crossed in a bar who would have given them the address of the member of the RCK.

The four friends then took the direction of Breteil, "a village of beggars" according to one of them, to seize the famous tarpaulins.

But for what purpose?

"We did that without thinking," said one of the defendants.

It started with a simple joke that went wrong and turned against us.

»

Among the three present, he is the only one to recognize his participation in the theft, however denying the violence.

In police custody, the absent accused had also confessed to the theft, evoking "rivalries between the ultras of Auteuil and those of Rennes".

PSG supporters, were the four defendants also members of Karsud, a group of ultras renowned for its violence and which no longer attends PSG matches since the 2017-2018 season?

They say no, some acknowledging that they gravitate around it.

As for the famous stolen tarp, they gave it to a friend, without giving further details.

“Just a piece of plastic”, according to the defense

For the prosecutor, this is a carefully “prepared” theft and not “a theft of opportunity committed at the exit of the stadium for fun.

“There is a desire to provoke the opposing group and to humiliate it with the risk of revenge,” he assured, referring to the growing violence in football stadiums.

“It is not a simple theft of a tarpaulin but a theft with physical and psychological violence,” he said.

For Maître Olivier Pacheu, lawyer for one of the defendants, it is on the contrary a very banal case of theft which has taken “disproportionate proportions.

“The tarp is perhaps symbolic for the supporters of the RCK, he assured.

But for justice, it's not, it's just a piece of plastic.

»

Lawyer for the other three defendants, Maître Jean-Laurent Panier also wanted to minimize the scope of the facts.

According to him, when you are part of the ultra environment, you have to accept “that there are inconveniences”.

At the end of the debates, which lasted more than two hours, the prosecutor requested sentences ranging from ten months in prison suspended up to one year in prison as well as stadium bans for three years.

The deliberation will be delivered on December 21.

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