The black series continues for French football. As the second period got ready to start, the 32e of the Coupe de France final between Paris-FC and Lyon, played at the Charléty stadium in Paris, was definitively stopped on Friday, December 17 by incidents in the stands.
A few minutes after the Lyon equalizer of Moussa Dembélé (44e), during the break, smoke bombs were launched around the Lyon parking lot. They were then picked up by supporters in the adjoining stand, then relaunched before extinguishing. Two agricultural bomb explosions were also heard.
Fights broke out and crowd movements took place in the Lyon parking lot and the neighboring stand, leading to the deployment of security forces who came to lend a hand to the stewards. Spectators from the stand near the incidents then descended on the lawn to move away. The referee and the players who were going to kick off the second period returned to the locker room. To never come out.
Ten minutes later, the public had returned to the stand after the intervention of the police and the stewards and the call for calm from the announcer. But at 10:50 p.m., the stadium announcer, accompanied by the president of Paris FC, Pierre Ferracci, announced “That in agreement with the authorities, the meeting would not resume”. The two teams were tied 1 to 1.
🔴 The match between Paris FC and OL is currently interrupted after incidents in the stands!… Https://t.co/qJsKV3KE4f
“I’m disgusted, it’s nonsense, a commented on RMC Louis, a spectator, supporter of OL. I was next to the Bad Gones parking lot. At halftime some guys behind started to climb and fight. There were a lot of hooded people. They had belts. They wanted to smash as much as possible. I don’t know if you can call them supporters, but it’s part of Lyon’s parking lot that caused a huge crowd movement. There was a movement of panic. They are crazy! Frankly, I was afraid for my safety. It’s amazing after everything that has happened in recent months, especially with OL. Safety was zero! The CRS arrived ten minutes later. “
Long series of incidents
These incidents, the latest in a long series in French stadiums since the start of the season, come the day after an interministerial meeting on stadium violence, in which professional football leaders took part on Thursday. It has led to several reforms and lines of thought.
A match will be like this “Systematically and definitively interrupted” when a player or a referee is injured by a projectile launched from the stands, the government said in a statement after a meeting with representatives of French football. In the event of an incident in a stadium, a crisis unit that does not include the presidents of the clubs concerned will also have to decide in a maximum of thirty minutes on the fate of the match.
The sale and the carrying of plastic bottles – of which the Marseillais Dimitri Payet was victim during a meeting between Marseille and Lyon, on November 21 – will be banned in football stadiums “No later than 1er July 2022 », adds the press release. In addition, the Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 clubs will all have to set up for certain matches, on the recommendation of the prefects, “Anti-spray safety devices”, for example nets, from the 2022-2023 season.
On Wednesday, the disciplinary committee of the LFP suspended the president of the Olympique Lyonnais, Jean-Michel Aulas, for five firm matches because of his ” behaviour “ during the OL-OM meeting. The manager had requested the resumption of play by asserting his membership of the FFF executive committee to the main referee, himself employed by the federation.
