Three weeks after the bottle spray on Dimitri Payet and the final end of the match between Olympique Lyonnais and Olympique de Marseille, the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP) unveiled the sanctions, Wednesday, December 8 .
One point was withdrawn from OL. The Lyon-Marseille match will also be replayed behind closed doors at the Groupama Stadium in Décines-Charpieu. The date will be fixed later. Finally, the Rhone club was sanctioned with a game behind closed doors, but the sanction has already been served against Reims (1-2) on December 1. The chairman of the disciplinary committee of the LFP, Sébastien Deneux, explained in videoconference the sanctions.
“The committee recalls that any act of violence against a player of the match and a fortiori an adult player commits the club to a penalty of a loss of point”
Sebastien deneuxpresident of the disciplinary committee of the LFP, in a press conference
The actions of Olympique Lyonnais “immediately after the incidents” have been taken into account. Sébastien Deneux particularly welcomed the “rapid” identification of the individual author of the throwing of the bottle, sentenced to six months in prison suspended in the meantime.
The penalty is therefore almost the same as for the Nice-OM match, where the Aiglons lost one point. However, the match was replayed on neutral ground unlike OL-OM. With this sanction, OL now have 22 points in the Ligue 1 standings and are seven lengths behind Marseille, third.
A few hours before the announcement of the sanctions, Jacques Cardoze, OM’s communications director, stepped up to the plate. The communications director of Olympique de Marseille blasted a “parody of justice”.
“As you have seen, no OM leader has been invited to speak to this disciplinary committee. We have not received any summons. We believe that this disciplinary committee today is illegitimate, that it is a parody of justice “
Jacques Cardoze, OM communications directorAFP TV
Asked about this at a press conference, the chairman of the LFP’s disciplinary committee, Sébastien Deneux, did not mince his words. The latter joked about the “sense of measure” by Jacques Cardoze, before continuing: “The absence of OM is the result of very simple logic. The only OL’s responsibility was engaged during this commission. […] Jacques Cardoze’s intervention was absolutely not necessary “.
For its part, OL took note of a sanction however qualified as “very heavy “ in a press release. “The disciplinary commission made the choice to give in to the emotion, but also to the pressures coming from all sides “, said the club, also regretting “to serve as an example” after the other incidents since the start of the season. Lyon also said “surprised” remarks by Jacques Cardoze, describing them as “speech with populist overtones, not to say nauseating”.