Paris Saint-Germain's crucial Ligue 1 clash with Lens scheduled for April 11 has been postponed until mid-May in order to give them extra rest in between the two legs of their Champions League quarterfinal tie against Liverpool, the French league (LFP) announced on Thursday.
PSG will host Liverpool on April 8 in the first leg and then travel to England for the return at Anfield on April 14.
Their trip to Lens has now been pushed back to May 13, in between the last two weekends of the French season.
The decision by the league is a controversial one as Lens had expressed their opposition to the postponement.
Lens are currently second in Ligue 1, one point behind PSG with seven games to play. PSG, the reigning European champions, have a game in hand.
"While expressing our disagreement with the unanimous decision taken by...the LFP to postpone the game against Paris Saint-Germain, Lens responsibly take note of it and emphasise our determination to keep pursuing our sporting objectives," the club said on Thursday, having issued a strongly worded statement earlier in the week.
The LFP have also postponed Strasbourg's scheduled game the same weekend against Brest to May 13 to allow them extra rest in between the two legs of their UEFA Conference League quarterfinal against Mainz of Germany.
The league justified the postponements by saying it wanted to do everything to aid French clubs involved in European competitions, thereby helping boost its coefficient and helping Ligue 1 keep four representatives in the Champions League.