Dimitri Payet hit by a bottle thrown from the stands, the eighth serious incident of a hectic Ligue 1 season

The weekends follow one another and are alike in Ligue 1. Clashes between supporters, agitation in the stands, violent gestures up to the aggression of an opposing player, the attitude of some supporters is rotting the season. New episode on Sunday 21 November, at the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, when a bottle of water thrown from the stands hit Dimitri Payet in the left ear near the corner post, in the first minutes of the poster for the 14th day between Lyon and Marseille. The OM striker had already been waiting for several minutes to be able to strike his set piece, in a climate of extreme tension.

Since the start of the season, eight league matches have now been disrupted by incidents, five concerning Olympique de Marseille.

August 8: Montpellier-Marseille

The first day of the championship set the tone. The return of the supporters to the stadiums was accompanied by the throwing of projectiles on the lawn by supporters from Montpellier during the reception in Marseille, Sunday 8 August. Jets that had hit the Montpellier Florian Mollet in the face while a bottle thrown from the stands had injured the midfielder of OM Valentin Rongier in the mouth. The meeting was interrupted for ten minutes before resuming.

August 22: Nice-Marseille

During the third day of Ligue 1 between Nice and Marseille, the Allianz Riviera was the scene of a very sad end to the match. Stopped in the 75th minute following the referees’ decision, the match was punctuated by excesses between Nice supporters and Marseille players on the field as in the stands.

Targeted throughout the meeting by supporters of the Aiglons, Dimitri Payet had returned, in the Popular South stand, a bottle of water that he had previously received, causing the invasion of the lawn by several dozen of Nice. One of them had kicked Payet (a gesture for which a year of imprisonment including six months suspended sentence was required) while Pablo Fernandez, the physical trainer of Marseille hit a supporter in the head (act which earned him a suspension until June 30, 2022).

September 18: Lens-Lille

The derbies often crystallize tensions. That of the North did not escape it with new scenes of violence. A group of lensois ultras had invaded the pitch at half-time to rush on Lille before the CRS intervene. The people of Lille had, for their part, thrown seats on the Lensois family stand located right next to it. Six supporters had been slightly injured and two spectators had been arrested, including one for having launched a siege on the police. The match was able to resume after half an hour of interruption.

September 22: Angers-Marseille and Montpellier-Bordeaux

The 7th day of Ligue 1 saw its share of violence. On the sidelines of the Ligue 1 match between the MHSC and the Girondins de Bordeaux, a bus of Bordeaux supporters was stuck on Wednesday, September 22, near Montpellier, by Hérault supporters “armed with iron bars”. A general fight broke out by the side of the road between the two camps before the police intervened. In all, sixteen people were slightly injured and six ended up in hospital.

Later in the evening, incidents also broke out in Angers, at the final whistle of the match between SCO and OM. Despite the intervention of the stewards and the call for calm from the announcer of the Raymond-Kopa stadium, blows were exchanged between the supporters of the two camps.

Similar events took place in Metz, where supporters tried to get off their stands after the electric match between Lorraine and PSG, marked by two exclusions from Metz.

October 22: Saint-Etienne-Angers

Friday, October 22, the kickoff of the match between Saint-Etienne and Angers is given one hour late at the Geoffrey-Guichard stadium. At the time of the pre-match protocol, several ultras from Saint-Etienne entered the lawn, and launched smoke, which burned the field and the goal nets.

October 24: Marseille-PSG

The poster for the 11th day of Ligue 1 between Marseillais and Parisians has been marked by many incidents inside the Vélodrome. PSG players have notably suffered from projectile throws when taking the corners.

The meeting was interrupted for a few minutes in the middle of the first period, to regain calm, and so that Benoît Bastien, the referee, noted the incidents. A supporter also entered the lawn, a quarter of an hour before the final whistle, to try to get a photo and a hug with Lionel Messi, thus annihilating a Parisian offensive. Finally, the players were also targeted by green laser beams from the stands.

November 21: Lyon-Marseille

The meeting between Lyon and Marseille, at the end of the 14th day of Ligue 1, could only be played a few minutes, before it was enamelled in turn with violence. Dimitri Payet, who came to take a corner, was hit in the head by a bottle of water thrown from the stands in the 3rd minute.

The incident led the referee to interrupt the match, when he had already had to ask for a call for calm, faced with the avalanche of objects thrown at the Marseille n ° 10 on this corner. But calm returned only fleetingly. After 1h15 of interruption, the stadium announcer announced that the match would resume, but that at the slightest new incident, he would be definitively stopped.