After the club, it is the president who pays. Jean-Michel Aulas was sanctioned with ten suspension matches, including five closed, this Wednesday, December 15 by the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP). The leader of Olympique Lyonnais was accused of making threats to the referee of the OL-OM match, who was arrested on November 21 due to a projectile thrown at Dimitri Payet.
His club had been sanctioned with a withdrawal of a firm point just a week ago and the match between Lyon and Marseille will have to be replayed behind closed doors. On the other hand, the LFP had not yet looked into the case of Jean-Michel Aulas, who would therefore have put pressure on Ruddy Buquet, referee of the match on November 21. It is now done.
In his report, sent to the disciplinary committee of the LFP so that the latter can study the events that took place on the evening of November 21 at Groupama Stadium, Ruddy Buquet stressed that after having taken the decision not to resume the match, Jean-Michel Aulas had threatened. “The competition depends on the LFP, you on the FFF, unfortunately I am part of the Comex (the executive committee of the French Football Federation, editor’s note) and it’s not going to stop there“, would have launched the Lyon president to the referee.
After studying the case, the LFP therefore decided to crack down on the President of Lyon. It will therefore be ten games of suspension, including five closed, which prohibit access to the sidelines, the referees’ locker room and exclude him from any official function for this period. After these revelations of threats, Jean-Michel Aulas had indicated that he had never uttered “any negative word against the referee“.
The president of OL once again reiterated his remarks this Wednesday evening, on the antennas of RMC : “I have a lot of respect for Mr. Buquet, who is probably one of the best referees at the moment. The sentence was pronounced once the match was stopped and it concerned the management of the stoppage of a match, between what the referee must do and what the prefect must do. It wasn’t pressure at all.“The disciplinary committee of the LFP has ruled otherwise. The sanction will come into force from December 21, at midnight.