The kick-off could not be given at 1 p.m. On the move this Sunday, in Monaco, on behalf of the 26th day of Ligue 1, Reims delayed the start of the match to protest against “acts of war” carried out by Russia in Ukraine.
It is a symbolic action that the Champagne club wanted to carry out. Before the match, the Rémois voluntarily remained in their locker room for several additional minutes while the AS Monaco players waited in the corridor leading to the lawn of the Louis II stadium. Wout Faes’ teammates finally got out and the game started five minutes behind schedule. “Despite all the respect I have for the Monaco club and for its leaders, we had to symbolically show that we were totally in disagreement with the acts of war carried out by Russia there,” said President Jean-Pierre. Clot at the microphone of Prime Video.
“We have a Ukrainian player in our women’s team who has her whole family there, we have people in the club who have family in Ukraine. If through symbolic actions we manage to regain calm and this war stops, we will put our little pebble to the building, ”he added.
This action, communicated “at the last moment” to the club of the principality, was made when AS Monaco is managed by the Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev, president and owner, and his compatriot Oleg Petrov, occupying for his part the position of vice-president general manager. “I have a lot of respect for Oleg Petrov. It’s politics, we stay in sport but we want to show at the level of our club a strong and symbolic action, “said the president of the Stade de Reims.
On the sporting level, Reims overthrew the rock club in the last moments of the game (1-2) to sign its 7and victory of the season and give themselves some air in the fight to maintain. For its part, Monaco, who opened the scoring at the start of the second half thanks to Wissam Ben Yedder, recorded their 8and setback and lost big in the race for the podium.