The clubs of Lens, Lille and Marseille were sanctioned, Wednesday, October 6, with a suspended point withdrawal by the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League, after the incidents that marked the Lens-Lille and Angers matches -Marseille.
Angers, for its part, is imposed two matches behind closed doors for its Coubertin stand, one of which is suspended. The firm match has already been purged. The SCO was also fined 20,000 euros.
For Lens, Lille and Marseille, the withdrawal of suspended point is accompanied by additional measures. Lens was sanctioned with two matches behind closed doors, already served. Lille and Marseille see their visitor parking lots closed during away matches until December 31.
“It seems very severe to me, both the suspended point withdrawal and the travel ban for our supporters, especially for a match that has come to an end and in which no injuries were recorded”, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Jacques Cardoze, OM’s communications director. The Lens club congratulated itself in a press release from the “Lucidity” of the disciplinary committee.
These sanctions come after overflows in the stands during the Lens-Lille derby on September 18 and during the Angers-OM match on September 22.
In Lens, during the break, dozens of Lensois supporters had invaded the field to do battle with the parking lot of Lille, who had torn seats to throw them on artesian supporters. The clashes, limited by the intervention of the CRS, left six slightly injured.
Third incidents of the season for OM
In Angers, after throwing firecrackers, several dozen Marseille supporters had left the visitors’ parking lot to confront the Angevin ultras in the neighboring stand, before the stewards restored order, without any injuries to be deplored. .
This is the third time since the start of the season that OM has been affected by this type of incident. During Montpellier-Marseille (2-3), in early August, the game was interrupted for a few minutes due to projectiles thrown on the lawn, and midfielder Valentin Rongier was injured in the lip.
Above all, serious excesses had taken place on August 22 during Nice-OM, interrupted at the 75e minute and which will be replayed on October 27 on neutral ground, in Troyes. Marseillais Dimitri Payet had been hit by a bottle thrown from a stand.
A fight between players, supporters and members of the management of the two clubs followed. On September 9, the disciplinary committee had imposed on OGC Nice a withdrawal of two points (including one suspended) as well as the closed door of its stadium for three matches.
“Engage the responsibility of all actors”
“Maybe during Nice-OM there was an additional degree of seriousness with players concerned and a game interrupted. But on both matches (Lens-Lille and Angers-OM), we have extremely violent incidents ”, Sébastien Deneux, the chairman of the disciplinary committee, explained to the press.
“Angers received a fine and if the sanction seems less heavy, it is because the club’s responsibility appeared to us less committed than that of the other clubs concerned”, he added.
On the decision to impose a suspended point withdrawal on three clubs, Mr. Deneux considered that this sanction made it possible to“Engage the responsibility of all actors, clubs as groups of supporters”. This stay is in effect for one year and falls “In the event of new incidents of substantially equivalent severity within this period”, he explained.
For OM, the closure of the parking reserved for its away supporters concerns the matches played in Clermont-Ferrand, Lyon, Nantes and Strasbourg. The same sanction will affect Lille when it travels to Clermont-Ferrand, Paris, Monaco, Rennes and Bordeaux.