Ahead of the UEFA Super Cup in Salzburg, the reigning Champions League champion from Paris was dissatisfied with the conditions and made demands. UEFA has now complied with these demands.
For the second year in a row, Paris Saint-Germain is competing in the UEFA Super Cup, which takes place this Wednesday in Salzburg, Austria. Just like last year, the team led by successful coach Luis Enrique will face an English opponent; however, unlike last year, that opponent is Aston Villa rather than Tottenham Hotspur (4–3 in a penalty shootout). The reason is obvious: The Villans won the Europa League final against SC Freiburg decisively in May.
For both teams, the first competitive match of the new season thus becomes a de facto final with a chance to win a title, even though the European soccer association’s Super Cup isn’t considered the most important competition.
The Parisians are taking this mini-tournament quite seriously, however, and are traveling with players like Bradley Barcola, even though he is heavily linked to a high-profile transfer to Liverpool FC. Also on the roster is Lucas Digne, whom PSG signed just last Sunday from their opponent, Aston Villa.
Complaints About a Too-Small Locker Room
On the field, the Parisian club—which has won the Champions League two years in a row—is considered the favorite, but the players from the French capital were not at all pleased with the conditions surrounding the Super Cup final. The team that defeated Arsenal (4–3 on penalty kicks) had noted beforehand that they were dissatisfied with the facilities at Salzburg’s Red Bull Arena. While Villa would be using the home locker room, PSG would have been left with the smaller visitors’ locker room.
However, during a meeting on Monday, PSG representatives made it clear that the club could not accept the situation as is, since PSG considers the locker room too small. Anonymous sources told BBC Sport that the Parisians wanted a locker room the same size as the Villans’ and cited, among other things, their status as the reigning UEFA Super Cup champions.
In response, UEFA presented a solution and made another vacant locker room available to PSG—one normally used by officials. However, this would not require the referees to move to a different locker room.