PSG now know which referee will take charge of their first Ligue 1 match of the season. On Sunday, against Rennes at the Parc des Princes (8:45 p.m., Ligue 1+), Bastien Dechepy will be the man in the middle.
Bastien Dechepy will therefore be PSG’s first referee of the season. At 40, he already has plenty of experience in the French top flight, having officiated 97 Ligue 1 matches. He will be assisted by Aurélien Berthomieu and Valentin Evrard, while Geoffrey Kubler will serve as the fourth official. Nicolas Rainville and Wilfried Bien will be in charge of VAR.
Dechepy tends to show plenty of yellow cards
One statistic stands out when it comes to Bastien Dechepy: he regularly reaches for his cards. Since the start of his Ligue 1 career, he has averaged 3.78 yellow cards per match, compared with the league-wide referee average of 3.53. However, he is not particularly severe when it comes to straight red cards, averaging 0.16 per game, almost identical to the Ligue 1 average of 0.17. His rate of dismissals following a second yellow card is also right in line with the national average at 0.09 per match.
Another figure worth monitoring on Sunday evening concerns penalties. Dechepy awards slightly more spot-kicks than the average Ligue 1 referee, with 0.40 penalties given per match compared with a league average of 0.34.
PSG therefore know what to expect for their Ligue 1 opener against Rennes: an experienced referee who is relatively quick to show yellow cards and who does not hesitate to point to the penalty spot when the situation requires it.
