2023-10-30 11:48:40
The Minister of Sports, the mayor of Marseille and even the president of Fifa denounced, on Monday, the rocking of the Olympique Lyonnais bus and the injury of its coach, Fabio Grosso, ahead of the OM/OL match which was to take place hold the day before. Nine people were arrested, including two for throwing objects at buses, according to the Marseille police headquarters. OL announced its intention to file a complaint.
Indignant reactions multiplied on Monday October 30, the day after the stoning of the Olympique Lyonnais bus which led to the cancellation of the football match between Marseille and Lyon. The incidents occurred ahead of the match at the Stade Vélodrome, when projectiles targeted the OL team bus, injuring coach Fabio Grosso, and buses of Lyon supporters.
“With the advice of OL and the protocol, the decision not to start the match was made,” announced the match referee François Letexier, adding that the reports “were transmitted to the competent authorities who will decide on the sequels.”
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
During the meeting of the crisis unit set up after incidents that occurred on the journey to the Vélodrome, “Olympique Lyonnais made known its opposition to taking part in the meeting given the circumstances”, confirmed the LFP in a statement.
“It will now be up to the Competitions Commission to decide on the fate of this meeting,” she added without specifying when it would meet.
Lyon coach injured in left eyelid
Lyon’s Italian coach, Fabio Grosso, and his assistant, Raffaele Longo, were injured. In images from broadcaster Prime Video, the coach was seen with a bloody face, then with a bandage on his head as he left the infirmary located in the corridors of the Vélodrome stadium.
A photo circulating on X shows him lying on a stretcher with a wound on his left eyelid, the arch and above the eyebrow. The technician was the victim of numerous dizziness and suffered from multiple traumas, according to a source close to OL.
“Revolting images”
Around 6:45 p.m. on Sunday, the OL team bus was stoned and four windows were broken, according to a police source. Furthermore, at least one bus of Lyon supporters was attacked and the windows were damaged, injuring several people on board, another police source told AFP.
Nine people were arrested, according to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, including two for having thrown objects at buses, said the Marseille police headquarters. “These images are revolting: seeing the stoned bus like that, the bloody face of Fabio Grosso… These are unacceptable acts which deny the very values of football and sport. I hope that the investigation will be carried out very quickly, that the perpetrators are found and they are severely punished,” declared the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, on the sidelines of a sports ceremony in Paris.
According to the minister, “it is deeply unfair and these actions, committed outside a stadium and which spoil the sporting event, must be eradicated with the greatest determination.” Pablo Longoria, the boss of OM, condemned “completely unacceptable circumstances”. “My first thought is for Fabio Grosso, someone I respect and have known for a long time. I went to see him as soon as I arrived at the stadium, I saw his condition,” he said in the mixed zone .
Complaint to come
The president of Lyon, John Textor, said he was “disappointed and angry” after these “shocking” incidents. “There was more than broken glass. Once the window was broken, other projectiles hit it,” he explained, referring to “beer bottles”.
In a press release, OL announced their intention to “file a complaint in the coming days”, confirming that six supporters’ buses had been targeted.
The Marseille police chief, Frédérique Camilleri, denounced during a press briefing “a handful of unconscious, irresponsible people who spoiled a sports festival for 65,000 people”, while the arrival of 600 Lyon supporters at the Vélodrome had been the subject of preparation with the groups of supporters of the two teams.
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
“The attack on the bus and the OL players is unacceptable. Support and recovery for their coach and his assistant,” continued the mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan. “There is absolutely no place for violence in football,” said Fifa President Gianni Infantino in a message posted on Instagram.
Two hours after the scheduled kick-off time, the Lyon supporters were greeted by the coach, the boss and the OL players even though they had still not left their enclosure.
After a catastrophic start to the season, Lyon was last in Ligue 1 before this 10th day, and Olympique de Marseille eighth.
Homophobic songs and racist gestures
At a time when the LFP is engaged in a delicate negotiation to allocate domestic and international rights to the L1 from the 2024-2025 season, these events come at a bad time and are very bad publicity for French football.
The events having taken place outside the stadium, the clubs are not theoretically reprehensible, according to the regulations of the LFP, but the daily L’Équipe mentions chants and gestures of a racist nature on the part of the Lyon fans present in the visitor parking at the Vélodrome, who could be subject to sanctions, like those suffered by PSG after the homophobic chants heard during the clasico against OM, on September 24 at the Parc des Princes.
The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, thus estimated on France 2 that “if it is established that there are supporters involved” in violence, “the clubs cannot lose interest in this”, advocating ” a global response” where “all bodies in the sports sector must be held accountable”.
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