When violence seizes the small football clubs of Puy-de-Dôme. After the Champions League fiasco in Paris on Saturday night. Followed the day after the chaos in Saint-Etienne in the Ligue 1-Ligue 2 play-offs, another incident this time tarnished the reputation of a Puydômois club: the attack on a district referee during the half- final of the consoling football cup held in Messeix on Thursday 26 May. The Messeiroux received Cébazat, but the meeting had to be interrupted after an hour of play.
It all started with a goal disallowed in the second half of the game. The 28-year-old Cébazat goalkeeper then got angry with the goalkeeper and insulted him copiously. The latter gives him a second yellow card. Furious, the doorman punches him in the temple.
The referee collapses to the ground. “I didn’t have time to see everything because I was stunned, but he still wanted to fight it out!”, recalls Jerome. “It’s a semi-final, it’s not a big level, it should have been happy“, deplores the referee. In fifteen years, he admits to having never experienced such a situation. Especially since many children attended the scene. What convinced him to file a complaint with the gendarmerie.
Violence on the rise in Puy-de-Domes
“There weren’t so many insults on the pitch in our time”, remembers Arnaud, striker at the Messeix club. At 38, this amateur goalkeeper feels that violence in football has increased. And the numbers back it up. Since the start of the season. There were 6,927 matches in the Puy-de-Dôme district, of which 1.1% were incidents. That is fifteen additional incidents compared to the previous season.
High-level clubs send back a bad image.
According to Philippe Amaduble, president of the Puy De Dôme district, the incidents during the Champions League final in Paris, or the violence in Saint-Etienne the next day, contribute to degrading the reputation of football. “I believe that the images that we regularly see on TV reflect a little of everything that is happening today in the department.” summarizes Philippe Amaduble.
The football federation will meet soon to sanction the goalkeeper who caused the blows. A similar referee attack had already taken place in April during another amateur match in Clermont-Ferrand. Since, the district of Puy-de-Dôme has decided to double the penalties against players in the event of incivility.