Olympique de Marseille confirmed to AFP on Tuesday 14 December that they had appealed the decision of the Professional Football League (LFP). The body had inflicted a penalty point on Lyon after the bottle throw that hit the Marseillais Dimitri Payet in Ligue 1 at the end of November.
The request was filed with the Appeal Commission of the French Football Federation (FFF), competent in second instance, OM said. On November 21, Marseille captain Dimitri Payet received a plastic water bottle in his face as he was about to take a corner in front of the bend occupied by ultras from Lyon.
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The Rhone club had received a penalty point in the standings, while the match, interrupted after four minutes, will be replayed in the OL enclosure in Décines, behind closed doors, according to the decisions of the Disciplinary Commission of the LFP published on December 8.
OM had called for more severe penalties: the club’s lawyers had asked in a document sent to the Commission, and of which AFP was aware of a sentence “obviously greater than two points, one of which was suspended, the loss of points being inevitable”.
The club’s communications director, Jacques Cardoze, regretted to AFP a “risky and deeply disappointing decision, even humiliating for the players”. Mr. Cardoze had also castigated the absence of convocation of any representative of the Marseille club during the Disciplinary Commission, criticizing a “parody of justice”.
OL, which defends the thesis of “the individual and isolated act”, also regretted in a press release “a very heavy sanction”, Who “creates unequal treatment over the same season”.
The FFF Appeal Commission, deemed to be more severe than the LFP, will have to fully re-examine the case before making a decision. Since the start of the season, marked by numerous fan excesses and as many disciplinary sanctions pronounced by the LFP, no file had so far been submitted to the Federation.