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Denied PSG fans seek damages

Nine Paris Saint-Germain fans who had match tickets invalidated by the club will take legal action against the French champions.

A group of PSG supporters were refused entry to their club's league game at Monaco in February with PSG citing security concerns as the reason for their actions.

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Nine of those fans will now attempt to have their expenses for the long, fruitless trip to the principality reimbursed, as well as making a claim for damages.

Their action comes two weeks after the National Commission for IT and Freedoms (CRILL) made public their decision that the club did not have the right to draw up a reportedly 2,000-strong list of so-called "undesirable" supporters who would be denied match tickets.

"Those who asked for an explanation were met with silence or an absence of motive," the complainants' lawyer, Pierre Barthelemy, is cited as saying in Le Parisien. "You need to remember that PSG feel above the law: they have been found to be in the wrong with regard to cancelling season tickets; their files and methods have been forbidden by CRILL, but they continue, they don't care."

PSG, who had asked the State Council, France's highest administrative court, to annul the CRILL ruling only to see their arguments rejected for now, were ordered in June to pay 500 euros in damages and 600 euros in costs to a supporter who had had her season ticket cancelled without just cause.

PSG has had a long history of fan violence, notably running street battles with supporters of arch-rivals Marseille, which led to an away fan ban in recent seasons, while rival factions of their own fan base frequently clashed in the French capital.

However, violence has been minimised since former club president Robin Leproux began a clampdown on violent supporters' groups even before Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) took over the club in summer 2011.