2023-12-07 23:04:30
Two Lyon supporters will be tried on January 16 in Marseille, for Nazi salutes and racist cries during the incidents which led to the postponement of the OM-OL Ligue 1 match on October 29, the prosecution announced on Thursday. A total of three Lyon supporters were arrested in the Lyon region and then placed in police custody in Marseille on Tuesday, as part of the investigation opened by the Marseille city prosecutor’s office for “provoking racial hatred and racial insults” after the Nazi salutes and monkey cries of several Olympique Lyonnais supporters at the Vélodrome stadium on October 29. The third supporter arrested had his custody lifted on Tuesday evening.
Following these incidents in the stands and the excesses outside the stadium, the stone-throwing of the OL players’ bus and a bus of Lyon supporters, this match of the 10th day of Ligue 1 was postponed to December 6. And it went off without a hitch on Wednesday, this time in the absence of the Lyon supporters, who had been banned from traveling, with a 3-0 victory for OM.
The two men referred on Thursday, aged 33 and 34, were placed under judicial supervision with in particular “ban on attending official or friendly OL matches”, “score obligation at half-time” of these matches and “ban on appearing in Marseille”, according to the press release from the Marseille prosecutor’s office. They would be members of or close to a group of ultra supporters of Olympique Lyonnais called “Mezza Lyon”, a group not recognized by OL.
Supporters banned from traveling for a closed match
In the parking lot where the 600 Lyon supporters authorized to come to Marseille on October 29 were installed, “some of the Lyon supporters made Nazi salutes and monkey cries aimed at the Marseille supporters”, detailed, the day after the events, the public prosecutor of Marseille Nicolas Bessone. OL had “strongly condemned the unacceptable racist behavior of individuals in the park” and “requested the videos to identify the perpetrators”.
According to images posted on social networks, members of the “Mezza Lyon” group, linked to the far right and officially not welcome in the parks, had waved their black flag bearing a white map of France on a black background. After these events, the group of “Bad Gones” supporters denounced “an infiltration of the neo-Nazi group Mezza Lyon into the Lyon parking lot”, in the front row of their corner of the stadium. Members of this small group “Mezza Lyon” were convicted in 2012 for racist tags in a premises in Saint-Étienne.
Following these racist acts of October 29, Lyon supporters will be banned from traveling for one match and three suspended matches in Ligue 1, the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP) decided on Wednesday.
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