Saturday, December 18, 2021
Game abandoned after riots
Wave of violence rolls over France’s football
Fans in France are passing the time with a terrifying wave of violence. A cup match between Paris and Lyon will be canceled on Friday. It’s not the first time the season has ended. Politicians have already acted.
In France, spectator riots caused a football game to be abandoned with the participation of Olympique Lyon. The cup match between the second division club FC Paris and the team of the former Bundesliga coach Peter Bosz was only interrupted for around 50 minutes shortly after the start of the second half on Friday evening when the score was 1: 1 and then the whistle was not restarted. The reason for this were fan riots in the stands – pyrotechnics were ignited, there were fights. Numerous spectators stormed the square to get to safety.
“The second half will not continue. The game is definitely over,” said Lyon on their website. The Parisians took the lead in the 7th minute through Gaetan Laura at the Charlety Stadium. Moussa Dembele equalized for Lyon in the 44th minute. Ex-world champion Jerome Boateng was not in the Lyon squad, the former Bundesliga players Julian Pollersbeck and Xherdan Shaqiri only sat on the bench.
Lyon was hit by an abandonment in the recent past. On November 21, the game between Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille was canceled after Marseille player Dimitri Payet was hit in the head by the throwing of a full water bottle from the Lyon fan block.
There have been similar incidents in French football stadiums since the start of the season. On August 22nd, Payet was already the victim of a bottle throw. In the game at OGC Nice, he was hit in the back and then threw the bottle back towards the audience. This was followed by a storm of space from Nice supporters and scuffles with players and supervisors. The game that was canceled was made up for on neutral ground (1: 1). Nice had to play a ghost game. A month later, fans at the north derby between RC Lens and champions OSC Lille caused the game to be interrupted by riots.
It was only last week that the clubs of the first two French leagues agreed at a summit with the French interior minister, the justice minister, the sports minister and the football association on new rules for abandoning matches in the professional leagues. Accordingly, games are “systematically and permanently canceled” when players or officials are hit by projectiles. An on-site crisis team must make the decision about a possible termination within 30 minutes of the incident.