The Italian technician was seriously hit in the face on October 29 by the throwing of a projectile during the stone attack on the Lyon bus in Marseille. The OM-OL meeting could not be played.
“For now, it’s still visible on the outside, but on the inside, it really touched me.” Scar still pronounced just above his left eye, Fabio Grosso did not hide his emotion on Friday November 10, two weeks after the serious incidents which led to the postponement of the match of his team, Olympique Lyonnais, in Marseille. The Italian has little taste for the decision of the Professional Football League (LFP), which ruled on Thursday that it did not have to impose sanctions against OM for the stone-breaking of several buses, including that of the Rhone team near the Vélodrome stadium. . For the Gones coach, this choice is “inadmissible”.
In a sigh as to whether he wishes to return to Marseille, after the postponement of the match which will take place in the Marseille city on December 6, Fabio Grosso shares his disappointment. “I was pretty sure we wouldn’t go back thereexplains the Lyon coach. I saw that nothing had happened with the commissions, and I didn’t believe that could happen. For me, this is unacceptable. We must not pass this off as a normal thing, it’s too serious. We’ll see what decision to make.”
If he assures to go “better”, the 2006 world champion does not hide the shock still very present in his mind. If earlier in the morning, the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had estimated that maintaining the match in Marseille was the “least bad option”Fabio Grosso’s memories leave him fearing the worst about the future.
“For something unacceptable, you have to make a strong decision, otherwise the unacceptable things will come back, and it will be more serious, and perhaps the person to whom this happens will not be able to come back and speak.”
Fabio Grosso, OL coachat a press conference, Friday November 10
Also questioned at a press conference this Friday, midfielder Corentin Tolisso agrees with his coach. “The decision to replay the match, I don’t understand it. I don’t know if we realize that our coach almost lost an eye. I find it crazy that there was no sanction. I was on the bus and I was really scared. What’s going to happen when we go back? What tells us it’s not going to happen again? I think it’s really, really crazy that there be no sanction. I am a father, when a child does something stupid, I punish him.“
The French international also casts doubt on the participation of the Lyon team in this postponement, for which OL will appeal. “I can’t tell you yes or no at the moment. There is a message to send everywhere in the world. It’s absurd, I’m speaking to you as an actor because I was on the bus. If a player loses an eye, he stops his career, what do we do?”
“If the message is: ‘everything that happens outside the stadium has no consequences’, we will have to take responsibility behind it”
The football director of Olympique Lyonnais, Vincent Ponsot, continued the charge against the LFP at a press conference, evoking a “incomprehensible political decision”, and against the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône. “It demands three things: a ban on OL supporters, a better secured bus with double glazing and anti-blast, and to choose our hotel in consultation. So it’s our fault. A coach almost lost a eye and the only lesson is that we, OL, must do things differently. If the message is: ‘everything that happens outside the stadium has no consequences’, we will have to accept it behind.”
Vincent Ponsot assures him, OL is not demanding a sporting sanction. “The Marseille players have nothing to do with it, we want to play on neutral ground”, he assures. What Fabio Grosso shares. “I have nothing against OM, nor against its real supporters, nor against the atmosphere at the stadium therereplies the Italian coach. But we can’t think we have to play football with an armored bus.”