At OL Park,
Forever the first. For the first time in nine years of rating of French referees in the newspaper The Team, worst grade, the 1st, was awarded Tuesday evening to Stéphanie Frappart during OL-Valenciennes (3-0). Already 23rd (out of 24 referees) in the average score in Ligue 1 this season in the sports daily (4.45), the only professional female referee in France therefore produced “an execrable match” according to The Team.
Hesitant on numerous occasions during this first semi-final of the Coupe de France at Parc OL, hanging on during the first period (0-0), Stéphanie Frappart could have whistled a penalty in favor of the Lyonnais following a collision by Basse on Nuamah ( 29th). But above all she is criticized by the VA players for two major decisions going against them.
- 38th: Hamache launches a counter and manages to serve Knockaert just before being cut up by Mata. In the duel with O’Brien, Knockaert got the better of the Irish defender, who fell to the ground 30 m from the Lyon goal. The VA striker took the opportunity to rush to serve Doucouré, author of an opening score that could change everything. Stéphanie Frappart first validates the goal, before being called by VAR referees Bastien Dechepy and Dominique Julien, and canceling it for a trip by the Valenciennois.
- 47th: VA defender Cuffaut very slightly unbalances Lacazette in the area, and Stéphanie Frappart immediately whistles. She is called again by the VAR referees, but this time, to everyone’s surprise, she does not change her decision upon discovering the images. The Lyon captain scored his penalty (1-0, 51st), and Valenciennes will never come back.
“Is it because it’s a big club across the street? »
Jeered by a large part of a sold-out OL Park (56,719 spectators) before the match when his name was announced, due to a history dating back to the 2020-2021 season with Rudi Garcia’s OL, Stéphanie Frappart was quickly insulted by the south turn after certain decisions to the disadvantage of the Lyonnais. A hostile context which could have influenced his verdict in these two contentious situations?
“We are Valenciennes… If it had been the other way around, the decisions might have been different,” recalls northern goalkeeper Jean Louchet. If he refused “to hide behind that”, he pointed out “two big facts of the game that we could talk about for a long time”.
“ The penalty whistled for Lyon, I am well placed, right in front of the action, continues Jean Louchet. When she goes to see the VAR, I ask that someone give me the ball so that I can make my clearance, because I know there is no penalty. It’s not possible… It would just have been nice to see when Lyon would have potentially cracked us without that penalty. The regrets are there. » »
Although directly involved in Doucouré’s disallowed goal, Anthony Knockaert also mainly regrets the penalty obtained maliciously by Alexandre Lacazette. “This penalty pfffff, it seems very light to me,” he complained, his eyes red, on beIN SPORTS. I do the same thing a minute before by throwing myself at the defender and she doesn’t whistle. There, in the surface, she whistles. Is it because it’s a big club across the street? I weigh my words. They can just suspend me if they want, I wouldn’t care because it’s hard to accept when we are last in Ligue 2 and we see all the efforts made this evening. At the arbitration level, they should ask themselves questions…”
“There is clearly no fault on our goal”
Understood about the level on the whistle of Stéphanie Frappart, the first woman to have refereed a match at a men’s World Cup, in 2022 in Qatar. Very upset at half-time, VA coach Ahmed Kantari simply confided at a press conference: “I don’t want to let anger overwhelm me but there is clearly no fault in our goal, it must be said that it is. They score on a penalty while it’s Lacazette who impales himself on my defender.” At the heart of these understandable criticisms of Stéphane Frappart’s refereeing, full-back Allan Linguet recalls another element: “We are already not used to VAR”.
Because video refereeing does not exist in Ligue 2, and it only appeared from the quarter-finals during this Coupe de France. Two rounds of the Cup aside, Siriné Doucouré’s goal would therefore have been validated. “It hurts because our first half had already created a little doubt among the Lyonnais, and they could have panicked a little and made mistakes,” suggests Allan Linguet. During their return flight to the North, the Valencian players may have smiled upon discovering the message posted on by agent Jennifer Mendelewitsch: “All year round we want more women in football. And then we see a Stéphanie Frappart match.”