OL coach Fabio Grosso, seriously injured in the face on Sunday when the Lyonnais’ bus was stoned in Marseille, called for “important decisions” on Friday to guarantee everyone’s safety. “We should not wait for something even more serious to make important decisions,” said the Italian during his first press conference since the incidents which led to the cancellation of the match.
“I want security for everyone”
“There was something unacceptable and we cannot move past it,” he insisted, his left eye still swollen and part of his injuries hidden by a cap pulled down on his head. “It’s getting better, it must be getting better,” he nevertheless clarified. The Italian coach then questioned the security system that had been planned for this high-risk trip.
“I have the impression that we followed a route that we should not have followed,” he said, adding: “We were arriving at a stadium with an escort made up of two motorcycles and two cars. police and in the end, we came out with 25 vans and 20 motorbikes. I have the impression that we are trying to do things afterwards when the decisions must be made before.” “I want security for everyone,” he insisted. “We cannot put people’s lives at risk for sport.”
Fabio Grosso also “condemned”, as his club had already done, the attitude of certain Lyon supporters inside the Vélodrome who made Nazi salutes and uttered monkey cries in the direction of the Marseillais. It is a “not beautiful thing” which must not happen again, he judged. The OM-Lyon match has been rescheduled for December 6 by the Professional Football League (LFP), which has not yet specified where it will be played.
For the Lyon coach, the time has now come for the Lyon-Metz match on Sunday, counting for the 11th day of the championship, with for OL, last in L1, the absolute necessity of winning for the first time this season . “At the start of the week, I came, but without managing the training, but my assistants worked well. I was a little weak physically, but inside myself, I am a volcano all the time. I want to do good sporting things with this club,” he concluded.