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French football descended into a new spiral of violence after a scheduled match between Marseille and Lyon was canceled because the visiting team’s bus was pelted with stones and bottles, causing the injury of Lyon’s Italian coach, Fabio Grosso, yesterday, Sunday.
Grosso suffered facial injuries in a new incident of crowd violence targeting the French Premier League, which two years ago was the target of a series of incidents of crowd violence and riots as well.
Since the events took place outside Marseille’s Velodrome stadium, French football authorities cannot impose any sanctions on the club, which belongs to the coastal city in southern France.
At this time, the events constitute harm to the image of French football, while the local league is working to sell the rights to broadcast the championship matches during the period 2024-2029. The events also harm the country in general, less than a year before the start of the 2024 Summer Olympics. In the capital, Paris.
Some of the Olympic preliminary round matches will be held in Marseille, where violence and crowd riots broke out between England fans and French police at the 1998 World Cup finals.
“Olympique Lyonnais regrets that such a situation occurs every year in Marseille, and appeals to the authorities to assess the seriousness and frequency of this type of incident before a more serious tragedy occurs,” Olympique Lyonnais said in a statement.
Leon indicated that he would file a formal complaint with the country’s legal authorities.
🚨#BREAKING: The French football club Lyon has had their bus attacked by Marseille fans.
The manager Fabio Grosso has been seriously injured.#Marseille #Lyon #League1 #Attack #French pic.twitter.com/bRN6oVR4wR
— Football Xtras (@football_xtras) October 29, 2023
Olympique Marseille president Pablo Longoria said, “What Fabio Grosso was subjected to is completely unacceptable. This is something that should never happen in football. This is unacceptable even if it happened outside the walls of the stadium. I feel angry and extremely disturbed by this situation.”
“These unacceptable actions are incompatible with the values of football and sport, and their perpetrators must be found and severely punished,” French Sports Minister Émilie Oudéa-Cassetra said.
The minister added that the authorities arrested 7 people in connection with the events on Sunday evening.
These incidents also came after incidents of violence and public riots spoiled the 2021-2022 season.
This season, Nice Club was punished by deducting two points from its score due to serious incidents occurring during its match against Marseille, when the visiting team’s players clashed with the home team’s fans, who threw missiles and fireworks and stormed the field.
The North Summit between Lens and Lille also witnessed violence and riots, and the start of the second half was postponed as a result before the security forces and stadium crews intervened.
Also in the 2021-2022 season, the cities of Montpellier, Angers, Marseille and Saint-Etienne witnessed incidents of violence and public riots.
