At the ball
Article reserved for subscribers
After the violence that marred the match in August, with bottle throwing and invasion of the lawn, five Riviera supporters were sentenced on Friday to fines and a two-year stadium ban.
On August 22, the football got lost. Lost in an invasion of extraordinary ground dissipated in projectile jets, distraught by the clashes between players and supporters. The violence interrupted the Nice-OM match. Six months later, this Friday, five supporters find themselves at the helm of the Nice Criminal Court. Lorenzo F., Mickael L., Paul M., Kévin O. and Benjamin T. appear for “damage to the property of others committed in a meeting” and “entering a playing area of a sports enclosure disturbing the course of the competition”. acquitted on the first charge, they are found guilty of the second. All are sentenced to fines and a two-year stadium ban, with an obligation to check in at the police station during OGC Nice home matches and OM-Nice matches.
In August, for this first derby of the season, the expectation is then at its peak. It’s the big comeback in a boiling and overflowing stadium after the Covid. It is the reunion with the Marseille supporters exceptionally authorized to travel. The first period is “tense”, with invective based “signs and grimaces”, recounts President Audrey Albertini, “soccer neophyte” by his own admission. Back from the changing rooms. The second …