Lens claim Ligue 1 risks sporting fairness over PSG v Liverpool request | OneFootball

Lens have vehemently opposed Paris Saint-Germain’s request to postpone their crucial Ligue 1 clash which is sandwiched between their two Champions League quarter-final matches against Liverpool.

The French club are locked in a title race with the Parisian giants, sitting just a point behind Luis Enrique’s side in the table, and have claimed any rescheduling of the contest would see Ligue 1 risk sporting fairness.

PSG’s trip to Lens is scheduled for Saturday 11 April - three days after their quarter-final first leg in Paris and three days before the second leg in Liverpool - meaning they face the challenge of three potentially season-defining matches in less than a week.

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PSG manager Luis Enrique watches on in the Champions League (Getty)

They have therefore made a request to France's Ligue de Football Professionel (LFP) to move the league meeting but Lens have responded by issuing a forceful statement.

Insisting that fixture details were finalised and agreed upon on 6 March, Lens highlight the “troubling sentiment” that is seeing the league “gradually relegated to the status of an adjustment variable at the whim of the European imperatives of some”.

They also point out how a date change will not just greatly benefit PSG - by far the richest, most powerful in the division - but will also harm Lens, forcing their fixtures to become congested.

A club statement read: “Changing the date of this match today would mean, for Racing Club de Lens, being deprived of competition for 15 days and then chaining matches every three days - a rhythm that corresponds neither to the one defined at the start of the season, nor to the resources of a club that could absorb this type of new constraint without consequence.

“It would therefore be understood that the tenth budget in the league should adapt to the demands of the most powerful, in the name of interests that, evidently, now extend beyond the domestic framework, which has already been lightened in recent seasons.”

The club say they did not plan to take the issue public but after making PSG aware of their “intention not to see this date changed” from “the very first requests”, they claim growing suggestions that a potential postponement is in the works has forced them into a vocal response.

A PSG spokesperson has told BBC Sport that "this type of rescheduling has been carried out regularly by the LFP in the past for the benefit of French clubs" and "in no way calls the league into question", arguing that “the performances of French clubs competing on the European stage benefit French football as whole”.

PSG, the reigning European champions, also had a league match postponed for their Champions League last-16 tie with Chelsea, moving a game with Nantes that was scheduled for the weekend in between the two legs to help them prepare as effectively as possible. They went on to win that tie 8-2 on aggregate.

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PSG also had a league match postponed for their Champions League last-16 tie with Chelsea (PA Wire)

The LFP have also received a similar request from Strasbourg, who want their meeting with Brest on Sunday 12 April postponed as it falls in between their Conference League quarter-final matches against Mainz.

The final decision will fall to the LFP, whose stance historically sees them assist French teams playing in Europe.