There will be no match 4 of the quarter-finals of the French championship between Sète and Narbonne on April 16. The derby came to an end. The Narbonne club has indeed forfeited this Saturday for the fourth meeting against Sète on Saturday in the quarter-finals of the French volleyball championship, after the incidents which occurred between the two clubs during the third match 48 hours earlier. .
“We have just informed the League that we will be forfeited for match 4. After discussion with the players, it was not possible for them to return to this room two days after the incidents”, indicated the president of the club. Jeremy Ribourel. The Narbonnais president continues: “The players are traumatized by what happened, they are going to write a press release on violence in sport, a political message”, he added.
It all started on April 14. Incidents began at the end of the third match won by Sète in front of his home crowd (3 sets to 1), when two Sète supporters seized the ball during an exchange. The tension had risen a notch at the end of the meeting, when the physical trainer of Narbonne Leandro Lardone “took a punch from a security guard who knocked him out”, according to a manager of the Hérault club. The situation had then degenerated, the Aude players trying to attack the security guard deemed to be at fault. “We are angry with the management of the Sète club for having endangered our players”, castigates Jérémie Ribourel. After this stormy match, two players and a member of the management of Narbonne filed a complaint at the Sète police station on Friday morning for “violence received”.
The National Volleyball League announced in the process “the opening of disciplinary proceedings against the Sète club by the disciplinary committee”.
“There will be a fifth game”, supports the League
In reaction to Narbonne’s decision on Saturday, the League also recalled on Saturday that it was “in favor of the match being held. We have done everything possible to ensure that the security conditions are optimal, by pronouncing a closed session ”assure the leaders of professional handball.
Following this package, Sète won the match and therefore returned to equality for two matches everywhere before the final meeting, which was to take place on Wednesday in Narbonne, less than 100 km from the Hérault city.
The Narbonne Centurions, who finished the regular season in fourth place in Ligue A, won the first European trophy in their history in the Challenge Cup (C3) ahead of Ankara in March.