Strasbourg president Marc Keller described the “attacks” by a “minority of people” against Emmanuel Emegha as “unacceptable”.
Last Sunday, on the occasion of the reception of Le Havre (1-0) in Ligue 1, some of the supporters in the west stand (the main stand for Strasbourg supporters) expressed their anger towards Keller and Emegha, whose future transfer to Chelsea had been made official a few days earlier. ‘Marc Keller, thank you for this golden decade. It’s time to go,’ said a banner unfurled in the stands at the Meinau stadium.
Moved by the events, the Strasbourg president decided to call a press conference to express his outrage at the situation.
“Something happened that I could never have imagined. I saw a minority of people in the west stand attacking the institution, the project and our captain. It’s unacceptable,” he said. “It was the attacks on Emmanuel Emegha that hurt me the most because he did nothing wrong. I don’t want him to be booed, he doesn’t deserve it. That’s not what we stand for. Here, we’re almost like a family.”
An outburst that is sure to continue to raise tensions between the two sides, with “adjustments” already announced to ‘re-establish a framework’ for supporters. The latter, through the Supporters’ Federation (which brings together the main RC Strasbourg fan groups), have been highly critical of the multiple ownership and sale of their club to BlueCo in June 2023. On 14th September, they published a strongly worded statement calling for the resignation of their president.
“Marc Keller is no longer in charge of decisions at the club he rebuilt on solid foundations a decade ago,” the document asserted. “Today, he is nothing more than a spokesperson responsible for defending BlueCo’s policy. It is now up to him to take responsibility: to leave and let the real decision-makers take his place. Defending the club with which he has shared so much is clearly no longer his responsibility.”
