Lens Triumph in Trophee des Champions Amid Controversy
On the pitch, the story was simple enough. Lens began their season in perfect fashion, edging PSG 1-0 thanks to a decisive strike from Thauvin. The Sang et Or dug in, survived a long spell with a man less, and finished the night with silverware in their hands.
Everything around the pitch was anything but simple.
A “neutral” final that felt like a home game
The Trophee des Champions is designed as a neutral showcase, a curtain-raiser meant to sit apart from domestic rivalries and home comforts. The LFP chose Stade Bollaert-Delelis anyway – Lens’ own fortress – and lit the fuse.
The numbers tell the story. As reported by Madein Foot, around 95 per cent of the stands were packed with Lens supporters. PSG, serial winners and the nominal powerhouse, were squeezed into a tiny corner: just 1,850 tickets in the away end.
From the first whistle, the noise, the colour, the chants – it all echoed a standard Lens home match. The LFP did nothing to dilute that feeling. Lens’ usual pre-match show stayed. Their half-time entertainment stayed. The club’s familiar rituals wrapped around a game that was supposed to belong to neither side.
For PSG, it felt less like a neutral final and more like walking straight into an ambush.
A sharp contrast with last year
The criticism has been fierce because the comparison is fresh. Only last year, when PSG faced Toulouse in the 2023 edition at the Parc des Princes, the LFP went out of its way to neutralise the setting.
That night in Paris, the governing body stripped back the usual PSG trappings, enforced a balanced presentation and pushed for a strict 50-50 split in the stands. The stage looked and sounded like a shared event, not a home celebration.
This time, the approach flipped. Same competition, same PSG, very different treatment.
The controversy does not come in isolation either. It lands less than a year after disputes surrounding a postponed fixture between PSG and Lens, another episode that strained relations and raised questions about decision-making at the top of the French game.
Adding to the sense of unease, both LFP president Vincent Labrune and PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi were reportedly absent from Bollaert on the night – notable omissions for a supposed showpiece.
Lens celebrate, the LFP face the backlash
On the terraces and in the dressing room, Lens will not care. They beat PSG, lifted the Trophee des Champions and did it in front of their own people, in a stadium rocking in familiar yellow and red.
But as the confetti settles, the focus turns squarely on the LFP. The choice to bypass the principle of a neutral venue has reopened a broader debate about governance and competitive fairness in French domestic competitions.
How can a match billed as a neutral final be staged in one club’s home ground, under that club’s full match-day programme, with a crowd so heavily tilted in their favour?
Those are the questions now being thrown at the league’s hierarchy. Pressure is building for clear answers – and for guarantees that future editions of the Trophee des Champions will not repeat this scenario.
Lens have their trophy. The LFP, once again, have a credibility problem to solve.
