Souleymane Sylla accepts invite to Paris Saint-Germain clash with Chelsea

A commuter racially abused by Chelsea fans in Paris last year will be in attendance when Paris Saint-Germain take on the Blues in the Champions League next week.

Souleymane Sylla was repeatedly pushed out of a carriage as supporters chanted "we're racist, we're racist, and that's the way we like it" as Blues fans travelled to their club's match with the French champions last February.

Chelsea condemned the incident before the first leg of the last-16 clash and five men were given football banning orders of up to five years in July.

They all also received lifetime bans from the club.

Mr Sylla had to take six months off work and he only used the Metro for the first time since the incident last Friday.

He turned down an invitation from Chelsea to go to the return leg in London in March 2015 because the ordeal was too raw.

The club made their offer as an open invitation, which remains in place.

But Mr Sylla plans to go to this season's last-16 first leg on February 16, one day before the first anniversary of the incident.

His lawyer Jim Michel-Gabriel said: "Paris Saint-Germain invited my client to be there and I think he will be there, with me.

"Maybe the supporters of Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain will think about what happened.

"He feels okay. He goes to the doctor once a week because he thinks about what happened one year ago. It was impossible for him to take the Metro. It was very hard for him.

"He feels better and he started [using the Metro] last Friday. He has decided to go to the match as life must carry on."

Legal proceedings in relation to the abuse are still ongoing in France, but Mr Michel-Gabriel said his client wants to return to normality.

"The case is still in justice, we don't know yet when we will go to the courts," he said.

"He thinks 'I have to take care of my family and I have to take care of myself'."

Chelsea's ticket allocation for the fixture has been reduced by 700 to 1,400 in response to last November's terror attacks in Paris.

But the Metro incident, combined with violence in the city surrounding last season's game, was also a factor.