“It’s a whole club that is mobilizing”: deprived of a match against PSG, RC Lens organizes a beautiful appeal for the release of Christophe Gleizes

White t-shirts with the face of Christophe Gleizes and the inscription #freegleizes flocked in large letters, scarves, by the hundreds, worn by supporters, with this same message and the fictitious kick-off of the football match given by Sylvie Godard, Christophe Gleizes’ mother. The tone is set!

This Saturday afternoon the Bollaert-Delelis stadium in Lens was marked by emotion and solidarity. Deprived of the shock at the top of Ligue 1 against PSG – postponed at the request of the Parisian club due to its quarter-final of the Champions League against Liverpool -, the Northern club took advantage of its forced rest to welcome Rouen in a friendly and, above all, to pay a huge and moving tribute to the French journalist arrested in May 2024 in Algeria and imprisoned since June 29, 2025. Or how to transform a controversy into beautiful action.

“We have commented sufficiently on our calendar constraints (the club was opposed to the postponement of the match against PSG) but from a constraint we wanted to give meaning to it, explained Benjamin Parrot, the CEO of RC Lens, at the microphone of the Ligue 1 + channel. When we are a club of passion we must also think of the journalists who will live the passion during the week. It’s a whole club that is mobilizing. »

A Sang et Or jersey, printed with the name of Gleizes and the number 2 – “that of Éric Sikora, the one who wets the jersey, we also want to wet the jersey” explains Parrot – was given to Christophe Gleizes’ mother and stepfather present on the pitch before the match.

At least 20,000 supporters present

The club thus wants to “put back in the center of the field an imprisonment that we cannot tolerate and which falls into a form of anonymity”, “we have to re-mobilize things” continues the manager.

The proceeds from this friendly meeting, which attracted at least 20,000 Lensois supporters, will largely go to the Reporters Without Borders association and the Christophe Gleizes support committee.

“We wanted to give this match meaning, we wanted to bring Bollaert to life and bring it to life to promote a cause, it had even more meaning,” explains Parrot. We naturally thought of Christophe Gleizes and Reporters Without Borders. A financial perspective did not make sense to us. »