Dembele to Miss Ballon d'Or Ceremony as PSG Match Is Moved Amid Protests in France
Paris Saint-Germain's match has been moved amid a wave of violent protests in France, following a request by police. The French league announced that PSG's home Ligue 1 game against Lyon, scheduled for Sunday, has been postponed until Monday.
The decision has a direct effect on the Ballon d'Or ceremony. The reigning Ballon d'Or holder, Ousmane Dembele, will miss Monday's awards ceremony in London, for which he and a number of his PSG teammates have been nominated.
The 29-year-old French international forward was once again among the favourites to win the award, having helped his nation to the FIFA World Cup 2026 semifinals while leading PSG to their defence of the UEFA Champions League crown.
The French league said in a statement on Friday that it takes note of the police decree prohibiting the staging of the game between Paris Saint-Germain and Olympique Lyonnais on Sunday at 8:45 pm, and has decided to reschedule the match for Monday at 8:30 pm.
French authorities are braced for another weekend of protests in Paris and across the country, after some of the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations a week ago. The postponement came against that backdrop.
In league terms, the match was already an important one. Defending champions PSG and Lyon were level on 14 points at the top of Ligue 1 heading into this weekend's eighth round of games.
Monday's match will clash with the Ballon d'Or awards ceremony in London, where several PSG players are on the men's shortlist: holder Dembele of France, Morocco's Achraf Hakimi, Georgia's Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, Brazil's Marquinhos, Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves and Vitinha of Portugal, Willian Pacho of Ecuador, and Fabian Ruiz and Ferran Torres of Spain.
Security for the protests is also being mounted on a large scale. French officials will mount a massive security operation for protests planned on Saturday, with troops reinforcing police, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Tuesday, after rioting and looting swept through Paris and other French cities on October 17.
The PSG-Lyon game is not the only sporting event affected. Several high-profile sporting events are scheduled in the French capital area this weekend, including an NFL regular-season game at the Stade de France on Sunday, where the Pittsburgh Steelers are due to face the New Orleans Saints — an event expected to require a significant police deployment.
Separately, Toulouse's Ligue 1 home match against Troyes has already been pushed back from Saturday to Sunday at the request of local authorities, the LFP said on Wednesday.
All told, the situation on the streets has become bigger than the contest on the pitch for now. PSG and Lyon must prepare to the new Monday schedule, while for Dembele, Ballon d'Or night will pass away from the ceremony venue, on the match field instead.
