Saint-Etienne’s last home game of the season, May 14 against Stade de Reims, will be played behind closed doors. This was announced on Monday by the Professional Football League (LFP), after the incidents that occurred on Saturday during the Greens’ match against Monaco (1-4) where the meeting had been interrupted for a long time due to jets of smoke. The club is nevertheless seeking an appeal.
It is a blow for the club of Forez, which fights for its maintenance in L1. Four days from the end of the season, the Greens currently occupy 18th place, synonymous with a play-off with a Ligue 2 club that has yet to be defined. They are four points ahead of the first relegated, Bordeaux (19th), and two points behind Troyes (16th) and Clermont (17th) and will have to travel three times to Rennes, Nice, and Nantes.
If ASSE plays these play-offs (May 26 and 29), it could also be deprived of spectators. Already pinned at the end of October when the kick-off of the reception of Angers had been delayed by one hour, the club risks other sanctions, such as fines, matches behind closed doors or even withdrawal of points. The Disciplinary Committee of the LFP has indeed placed the file under investigation and will render its decision on May 18, four days after the meeting against Reims.
In a press release, the Saint-Etienne club quickly reacted: “Given the seriousness of this immediately applicable precautionary measure and which, as it stands, will deprive more than 30,000 lovers of the Greens from going to the stadium for the ASSE- Reims, on May 14, AS Saint-Étienne asked its Councils to analyze the appeals likely to be initiated without delay. »
Saturday evening, the reception of Monaco was marked by two interruptions. The second lasted more than half an hour, while some ultras from Saint-Etienne used smoke bombs and fireworks to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the group of Green Angels supporters. The meeting ended around 9:30 p.m.