Anti-projectile nets, this is a first at La Mosson. However, Montpellier is not the only city concerned. All Ligue 1 clubs are subject to this new rule, following incidents that occurred in various venues last season. The decision, taken during a interministerial meeting, last December 16must be applied in the 20 stadiums hosting elite matches, from the resumption this weekend.
Small mesh nets
The nets start from the ground and are placed all along the stand, behind each goal. They do just under twenty meters high, the holes are less than nine square centimeters. Pierre-Marie Grappin, former lawyer and head of security at the club, regrets this novelty, but affirms that they are notably supposed to prevent bottles but also lighters, a real scourge, from arriving on the lawn. They must also retain many objects, including smoke, since the mesh can neither melt nor ignite.
By the way, the club hopes avoid penaltiessuch as fines and partial closed sessions, the financial repercussions of which are significant.
A system already implemented and tested by OGC Nice, which cost 60,000 euros to the metropolis of Montpellier. And which should bring back bad memories to supporters of La Paillade. Those who knew the nets to hold the balls, with larger meshes, withdrawn several years ago because considered too dangerous, insofar as some climbed them.
– Bertrand Queneutte
Already tested in Nice
For the time being, only the stands located behind the goals are concerned because “responsible for 90% of projectile throws“according to Pierre Marie Grappin, even if the first incident of last season, during the reception of OM, with a bottle thrown at Marseille’s Anthony Rongier, involved a grandstand whose view is not obstructed today. However, the former lawyer indicates that if objects were thrown from the other rows of the stadium, the entire enclosure could be affected.
The prefecture, for its part, specified this Thursday afternoon that the match against Troyes would be a test, this Sunday (3 p.m.), for the opening of the championship. And that the setting up of the nets would be decided before each meeting, in conjunction with the authorities, according to the risks associated with the meeting.
The ultras of the Butte and the Armata Ultras will not however be hidden by the nets, this Sunday. Their platform is indeed suspended, following the incidents during the reception of the PSG, last May: jets of smoke, in particular. They were replaced, for the first day of Ligue 1, by the MHSC.
– Bertrand Queneutte
A new crisis room
Another novelty, the creation of a crisis room, within the Mosson. A room which will allow the meeting of different actors, in the event of problems in the enclosure: representative of the public authority, referee, delegates and representative of the club with delegation of the president will be able to enter there. The presidents will not have access to it.
We find there a giant screen with images from the thirty cameras who film the enclosure: lawn, stands, corridors and changing rooms.