11 arrested after PSG and Bayer Leverkusen fans fight before match

Published Mar. 12, 2014 6:33 p.m. ET

foxsports

PARIS (AP) Eleven people were arrested when fans of Paris Saint-Germain and Bayer Leverkusen fought before their teams' Champions League game on Wednesday.

About 40 fans of each team met in Paris' city center in a ''short but violent altercation'' outside Odeon metro station that left several people with minor injuries, PSG director of security Jean-Philippe d'Halliville told The Associated Press by telephone. He added that fans of another German club, Kickers Offenbach, reinforced the Leverkusen contingent.

D'Halliville said the groups charged at each other twice, and that the clash was ''probably pre-arranged.'' He said nine of those arrested were from the German contingent and two were PSG fans.

PSG has tried hard to eradicate a long-standing fan violence problem. Two PSG supporters died in separate incidents outside Parc des Princes stadium in 2006 and 2010.