PSG wishes fans happy Diwali during Marseille clash

Paris: Seeking to connect with the Indian fans, French football giants Paris Saint Germain greeted the people of the country with an advanced ‘Happy Diwali’ during their Le Classique match against arch-rivals Olympique de Marseille here.

The main stand of the 48,000 seater Parc des Princes, the home stadium of PSG, saw ‘Happy Diwali’ and ‘Shubh Deepawali’ in Hindi running on LED screens in the 29th and 67th minutes of the much anticipated Ligue 1 (French top their league) match between the arch-rivals late last night. The match ended a goal-less draw.

Diwali (Festival of Lights) falls on 30 October. The clash between reigning champions PSG and Marseille is one of the most intense traditional rivalries in French as well as in world football.

PSG, which currently runs two academies in India, in Gurgaon and Bengaluru, are seeking to raise its profile and increase its brand value in vast Asian markets. Their fan following in Asia has been increasing by leaps and bounds after Qatar Sports Investment bought the club in 2011.

Their latest initiatives were digitisation and internationalisation and to attract the vast young population in Asia, including India. Among the Asian countries, Indonesia has more than 2.7 million fans in Facebook.

India has nearly nine lakh PSG fans. China has more than 1.5 PSG fans on social media. In fact, more than 90 per cent of fan followers of PSG on Facebook are from outside France. Indonesia has more fan followers of PSG than inside France.