Fabio Grosso’s pictures will probably remain, like a beacon – as a “point de non retour”, like the major French sports newspaper L’Equipe writes, from the point from which there is no turning back. Actually? Haven’t you heard that often?
Before the football match between Olympique Marseille (OM) and Olympique Lyonnais (OL) on Sunday evening at the Stade Vélodrome, a group of suspected ultras from Marseille attacked the team bus of the visiting team from Lyon: with paving stones, with all kinds of throwing objects. Two double-glazed windows on the right , the front of the bus broke, Grosso, the Lyonnais coach, was sitting at one of the windows. The photo of his face covered in blood was soon to go around the world.
As if this world didn’t already see enough disturbing images of violence and war, some so-called fans felt like an attack out of pure hatred, not for the first time. There were 65,000 spectators in the Vélodrome. 600 away fans were also there; the authorities had allowed them to arrive, although there had often been problems in the past, especially with stones being thrown.
In France they call the match between the two clubs that have the Olympics in their name “Olympico” – an onomatopoeic variation of the more famous and otherwise assigned “Clásico”. OM vs OL is also a kind of classic. The two cities, which compete for the title of the second largest and second most important city in the country, far behind Paris of course, also display a memorable mutual spite in the stands.
“This is not sport, this is not football,” says the mayor of Marseille
This time there was a special touch in the “Olympico”. At the Marseillais everything is upside down because their sporting achievements are once again not consistent enough to meet their ever-excessive ambitions; But above all, part of the supporters are taking on the club’s management quite head-on, with absurd expressions of a strange power struggle. The Lyonnais, on the other hand, once very spoiled for success, no longer know where their heads are: OL, which now belongs to Americans, is currently last in Ligue 1. Three points from nine games, three draws.
That’s why they brought Grosso from Italy, where he had coached Frosinone Calcio for several years, as a hopeful cheerleader. OM has also recently started listening to an Italian, Gennaro “Rino” Gattuso. The “Olympico” was supposed to be that, a small duel between two world champions from 2006, a meeting between two old friends.
Grosso was sitting in one of the front rows of seats in the bus, by the window, when it was only a few meters away from the stadium and the hail of stones began. Apparently a beer bottle also hit him. There was a three centimeter long cut above his left eyebrow, which they later had to stitch with twelve stitches. His deputy Raffaele Longo was also injured. At first it seemed as if the match was going to take place anyway. But three minutes before the start of the game, when Grosso’s pictures were already spreading on social media, the stadium announcer announced their cancellation.
Grosso was so shocked by the incident that he would not have been able to fulfill his role on the edge of the field. For a while people wondered if he had suffered a concussion. “He wasn’t quite lucid anymore,” said John Textor, the club’s president, who tried to talk to him. Grosso had broken glass on his face. In such cases of “mental or physical” inability of a key player, the regulations stipulate that games can be canceled. Grosso turned to his players with a lot of bandages around his head, calmed them down and was taken to the hospital. According to the Interior Ministry, in addition to those responsible in Lyon, five police officers were also injured.
Lyon coach Fabio Grosso is sitting on a bus again – this time with a fresh doctor.
(Photo: Frederic Speich/MaxPPP/Imago)
And again there is great outrage on all sides. The mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, says: “This is not sport, this is not football.” France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra struck in the same direction. “These unacceptable acts deny the values of football and sport and their perpetrators must all be found and severely punished,” she demanded on social media. The pictures are outrageous. So far everyone probably agrees. The newspapers write that French football is undermining its already not very positive image. It’s no wonder that the acquisition of the television rights to Ligue 1 is no longer of interest, as we can see now that they are being negotiated. After the departure of Lionel Messi and Neymar, who both played for PSG, the league lost a lot of its appeal.
OL is now checking whether it will file a complaint. The president of OM, Pablo Longoria, said he was “dismayed” by the incident, but also said that it had happened outside the stadium – outside the club’s responsibility. Longoria was already in a defensive position when the French Football Association only received the report from Marseille. Would it be a “point of no return”, like L’Equipe writes, one would actually expect a profound introspection. And perhaps an exemplary punishment. The first consequences have already been seen: Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin reported nine arrests.