Once again, a Ligue 1 match is marred by violence in the stands. In Lyon, during the OL – OM clasico this Sunday evening, the Marseillais Dimitri Payet receives a bottle of water in the head from the north bend of Groupama Stadium. We have only been playing for five minutes. The referee stops the match, everyone in the locker room. Lamentable.
The stadium announcer announces the resumption of the match and then finally, after long procrastination and while the Lyonnais are back to warming up, the match is permanently interrupted after more than two hours of waiting. “After these new extremely serious facts, the Disciplinary Commission will meet urgently from tomorrow”, has already announced the Professional Football League.
Insults during warm-up
Olympian captain Dimitri Payet is about to take a corner when he receives the projectile. The shock is impressive. The bottle filled with water flies from the stands and explodes in Payet’s face. The Olympian remains on the ground for long minutes, surrounded by players from both teams and members of the Marseille medical staff. He then returns to the locker room, an ice pack on his temple, accompanied by the trainers. Already during the warm-up, Payet was insulted by songs emanating from of the two bends of Groupama Stadium.
Unfortunately, Dimitri Payet is a regular. At the end of August in Nice, he had already been the target of throwing bottles. The match was then interrupted a quarter of an hour from the end, before being replayed behind closed doors and on neutral ground, in Troyes on October 27 (1-1). The Riviera club had been sanctioned with a withdrawal of two points in the standings, one of which was suspended.
The 2021/2022 Ligue 1 season is marked by many incidents in the stands. Projectile jets notably tarnished the match between Marseille and Paris SG on October 24 at the Stade Vélodrome.
The thread of the evening
– 11:15 p.m .: Pablo Longoria reacts to the incidents of the evening. The president of OM first explains on Prime Video that Dimitri Payet “is affected psychologically, it is not normal, we have always condemned any type of violence. No one who loves soccer can be happy tonight […] It’s not nice to see that from my players. “. Far from the controversies on who decided to announce the resumption of the meeting (before it was definitively interrupted), Pablo Longoria takes height : “We come here to play a football match. I am not here to make the decisions of the League, but we must ask ourselves a lot of questions, because violence in football is not normal. The spectacle must be in the field […] After such an evening, _we can ask to think all together so that this type of thing stops definitively_. All French football players must talk to each other. “
– 10:48 p.m. : Jean-Michel Aulas, president of OL declares that the match has not resumed “under pressure from the leaders of Marseille“.”The length of the decision is incomprehensible“, also considers the president of Lyon, according to whom the announced resumption of the part caused”an extremely violent reaction“in the Marseille locker room. There is no doubt that his words will make people react.
The referee of the match Ruddy buquet wanted to give his version of the facts on the TV channel Prime Video: “My sporting decision has always been not to resume the game. […] We have to protect the actors. Now a decision will be taken by the LFP commission. “
– 10:42 p.m. : the announcer announces, under the whistles, that the match will not resume. “Contrary to what had been announced, the referee decided not to restart the game, considering that the safety of the players was not assured. “
– 10:40 p.m. : the stadium is empty of almost all spectators and the players are all in the locker room, including the Lyonnais.
– 10:37 p.m. : a man was arrested after a bottle was thrown at Dimitri Payet, we learned from the police. The man was identified by CCTV cameras.
– 10:33 p.m. : in a press release, the Professional Football League sentenced “firmly the violent assault“of which Dimitri Payet was a victim and”regrets the decision to resume the meeting“. The LFP explains that the security of the matches”is the responsibility of the club and the local authorities to whom it ultimately belongs to the resumption or the definitive end of the match.“A surprising statement, when the regional prefect said the opposite a few minutes earlier (see below).
– 10:22 p.m. : OM players have still not returned to the field while the Lyonnais are warming up.
– 10:06 p.m. : it is announced that the match will resume “but he will be arrested definitively at the first incident“Said the announcer. We are waiting to see if the Marseille players return to the field. prefect of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region states that only the referee can make the decision to resume the match.
– 8:50 p.m. : after only five minutes of play, Dimitri Payet, copiously insulted since the start of the meeting, receives a bottle in the head at the corner post. The Reunionese collapsed. The game is stopped, the referee sends the players back to the locker rooms.
– PHILIPPE DESMAZES