“Two people were arrested after the projectile throws” which led to the interruption of the Montpellier-Marseille match, the Montpellier police announced Sunday evening August 8 to Agence France-Presse.
Earlier in the evening, the last meeting of the 1D Ligue 1 day was interrupted twelve minutes by the referee, after several warnings due to the throwing of projectiles. The OM player Valentin Rongier, replacing, was hit in the head by a bottle, at the time of the goal of Dimitri Payet who placed his team in control of the match (3-2, 79e). “Valentin Rongier had a big cut in the mouth and could not come into play. We hope not to see these gestures again”, commented after the match OM coach Jorge Sampaoli.
A bottle was also thrown from the Etang de Thau stand, those of the local ultras, in the Marseille penalty area, while Hérault’s Florent Mollet was preparing to take a corner (89e). Referee Jérémie Pignard then decided to send the two teams back to the locker room. After a moment of trial and error, the actors left the lawn.
“Ineligible”
The security director of the Montpellier club Pierre-Marie Grappin spoke directly to the spectators: “Supporters, you are giving Marseille the best gift they could dream of. Your behavior which consists in throwing bottles, full cups during the game and on the lawn is unacceptable “, he said at the microphone.
These incidents expose the club to sanctions, with the regulations providing for a disciplinary range ranging from a fine to closed doors. “I hope there will be sanctions, because we cannot allow things like that”, fulminated the Marseille defender Leonardo Balerdi.
After twelve minutes, the game resumed. Marseille finally won 3 to 2.
According to broadcaster Prime Video, the person who threw the bottle at Rongier was arrested and evacuated from the compound. “It’s always regrettable because it penalizes everyone. The referee did what he had to do. It’s always a little sad to see this kind of thing, these are things that we should never see again. Everyone has to make an effort ”, reacted the coach of Montpellier Olivier Dall’Oglio, at the microphone of Prime.
This derby was played in a stadium subject to a maximum capacity of 13,500 seats (out of 22,000), decided by the prefect of Hérault in the face of the active circulation of the coronavirus in the region. This weekend coincides with the return of the supporters in the stadiums, after seven months in camera.