Date of the Coupe de France final sparks anger and outrage | OneFootball

This Tuesday, March 17, the French Football Federation announced the date and time of the 2025-2026 Coupe de France final. It will take place on Friday, May 22 at 9:00 PM at the Stade de France. This decision is far from pleasing football lovers and the supporters of the clubs involved (the semi-finals are Lens/Toulouse and Strasbourg/Nice).

There is an explanation, more or less convincing.

The supporters’ anger is based on a clear point: it will be complicated for some to make the trip and arrive on time for the match, since it’s on a Friday and not a Saturday as usual. Even more frustrating, the reason for this change is not clearly stated in this announcement. One might think of a European final, except that the Champions League (May 30), the Europa League (May 20), and the Europa Conference League (May 27) do not prevent playing on Saturday, May 23.

In reality, it’s a transportation issue. Indeed, major works will take place on the RER B and D lines, which serve this stadium. There was a request to postpone the works, but it was unsuccessful. The other option was to play in another stadium. But this was ruled out for revenue reasons (the Stade de France has the most seats in France). Even if this is not necessarily an explanation that will satisfy the supporters, especially since there is no Parisian club in the final and thus a relocation could have been justified.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.