Difficult to clear up a confusing situation to say the least. Reunited, Wednesday, September 8, in a hotel on the 15the Parisian district, the disciplinary committee of the Professional Football League (LFP) has ruled on the Nice-Marseille meeting, which was interrupted on Sunday August 22 after major incidents.
At the end of the evening, after having auditioned for nearly three and a half hours most of the actors of that evening, the authority of the LFP decreed that the meeting would be replayed on neutral ground and behind closed doors.
It also inflicted on the Nice club a withdrawal of two points in the standings (including one suspended). A decision “Up to the seriousness of the incidents which had an exceptional impact”, according to Sébastien Deneux, chairman of the disciplinary committee. A way, too, to send the two clubs back to back.
Poster of the third day of Ligue 1, the match between the Olympique gymnaste club de Nice (OGCN) and Olympique de Marseille (OM) degenerated after 74 minutes and seven seconds of play. The Aiglons then led thanks to a goal of their Swedish striker, Kasper Dolberg, after the break (1-0, 49e). In a boiling atmosphere – the public is back this season after a year and a half of absence, pandemic obliges -, the Phocéens were trying to return to the mark.
As he was about to shoot a corner, Marseille playmaker Dimitri Payet, who had been, with his partners, the target of various projectiles since the initial whistle, received a bottle of water in the back . He replied by sending her back to the south turn.
A huge scuffle followed, after dozens of Nice supporters invaded the lawn, causing a fight between fans, players and members of the management of the two teams.
The regrets of Olympique de Marseille
“The stake is not only to know if we sanction the OGC Nice [en raison des débordements] but also what we do with the result of this meeting ”, expressed to World Nicolas Hourcade, sociologist at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon and member of the national supporterism body, the day after the game. Having refused to resume the meeting, believing that their safety was not assured, the Marseillais risked losing it on the green carpet for not having respected the rules.
While Nice and Marseille were each claiming the win of the game – one because he was leading, the other for having been mistreated – and the three points for the standings, the LFP body did not go into the meaning neither of the two clubs.
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