Cédric Chasseur, edited by Loane Nader // photo credit: JEFF PACHOUD / AFP
This Sunday evening, near the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille, a group of individuals were stationed at the side of the road with the aim of stoning, using cobblestones and other projectiles, the Lyon players’ bus. Result: coach Fabio Grosso injured in the face and no match against OM. This Monday morning, the political and sports class unanimously condemned these acts of violence.
The president of Olympique de Marseille, Pablo Longoria, was for example in a rage at the Vélodrome: “It’s completely unacceptable, I’m angry, I’m baffled. It’s an unacceptable situation, even if it’s outside the stadium, even if it is on the public highway, it has no place either in football or in current society,” he lamented.
“Sport, football, that’s not it”
“There is no place for violence in football”, reacted the president of Fifa, Gianni Infantino. “Sport, football, that’s not it,” he says on his social networks Benoît Payan, the mayor of Marseille. Same story for the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin who mobilized nearly 500 law enforcement officers, resulting in the injuries of six police officers. The police chief condemns unacceptable violence, assures that there were no police failures and also calls for the strongest possible prison sentences.
The attack on the bus and the OL players is unacceptable. Support and recovery for their coach and his assistant.
Sport is not that, football is not that.— Benoît Payan (@BenoitPayan) October 29, 2023
His colleague in the government Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the Minister of Sports, does not mince words to qualify those responsible for these serious incidents but also the few Lyon supporters responsible, within the stadium, for monkey cries and Nazi salutes . “For these idiots who spoil the party of nearly 70,000 people, it is a judicial ban from the stadium for five years,” she informs, before continuing, “in the same way as for these Nazi salutes, these chants homophobes who pour out hatred, in the same way as for these monkey cries, it’s all out there! But you just don’t belong in our stadiums, shame on you!”
Images of the stoned buses of the@OL and his supporters, and those of Fabio Grosso’s bloodied face are revolting. These unacceptable acts deny the very values of football and sport, and their perpetrators must all be found and severely punished. 7… https://t.co/OALGXLbfvE
— Amélie Oudéa-Castéra (@AOC1978) October 29, 2023
It now remains to be seen when this match between Marseille and Lyon will be played. The competitions committee of the professional football league should meet this week to decide.