Saturday, December 18, 2021
Space storm, pyro, brawls
Lyon punishes fans for football riots
The soccer cup match between Olympique Lyon and FC Paris ends in chaos. Instead of an end result, there is a demolition due to a storm, brawls and pyrotechnics. Jérôme Boateng’s club is now punishing its own fans for this. The sports minister calls for consequences.
France’s Minister of Sports, Roxana Maracineanu, put pressure on the national association after a football match was abandoned due to crowd riots. According to information from the sports newspaper “L’Équipe”, the politician is said to have called on the President of the FFF to take decisive action. The incidents at the cup match between the second division FC Paris and Olympique Lyon are outrageous, the minister is said to have declared in her written communication to Noël Le Graët.
The association must finally take action, the newspaper quoted further. Le Graët described the incidents as catastrophic. The association’s disciplinary committee is due to meet on Monday.
Lyon meanwhile announced that no fans will be allowed to travel to the upcoming away games. The game between Paris and the team of the former Bundesliga coach Peter Bosz was canceled on Friday evening at the score of 1: 1 after fan riots had broken out in the stands. Pyrotechnics were ignited; there were fights. Numerous spectators stormed the square to get to safety.
Previously, the Parisians had taken the lead in the 7th minute through Gaetan Laura at the Charlety Stadium. Moussa Dembélé equalized for Lyon in the 44th minute. Ex-world champion Jérôme 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 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.