His position was expected. Noël Le Graët spoke on Saturday, December 18 on the final end of the Coupe de France match between Paris FC and Lyon decided the day before. For the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) the “troublemakers must be kicked out of sports arenas”.
“The incidents during the Paris FC – Olympique Lyonnais match at the Charléty stadium are intolerable”, deplores the leader in a press release. “The right decision was to put an end to this meeting as quickly as possible. The referee of the match reacted perfectly in a difficult context”.
“These few groups of pseudosupporters, at the origin of these incidents and this violence, have nothing to do in a stadium”, adds Noël Le Graët, while the 32nd final of the Coupe de France had to be stopped definitively at half-time with a draw (1-1), due to the throwing of smoke and fights around the Lyon parking lot.
“I hope that the investigations and procedures put in place, whether disciplinary, administrative and judicial, shed light on these incidents, clearly identify the responsibilities and these troublemakers who must be driven out of sports arenas by the prohibitions of necessary stadium “, continues the boss of French football.
Noël Le Graët took the opportunity to welcome the new protocol for dealing with violence in stadiums, decided a few days earlier during an interministerial meeting. “The new measures announced Thursday by the Ministries of the Interior, Justice and Sports in cooperation with the football authorities are going in the right direction. Now, we must implement them together, in responsibility”.
This meeting, in which professional football leaders took part, led Thursday to several reforms and avenues of reflection to deal with the many excesses that have punctuated league matches since the start of the season: Ligue 1 or Ligue 2 matches. “permanently discontinued” if a player or the referee is attacked, decision within a maximum of 30 minutes concerning the stopping or resumption of the match, plastic bottles prohibited, protective nets.