What is practical, with these game interruptions, like Sunday night during OL-OM, is that we are starting to get used to it. It even allows you to better organize your agenda. The little one who can hardly fall asleep? No worries to rock him while Thierry Henry laments in his seat. The dishes overflowing from the sink? Come on, two, three plates while Jean-Michel Aulas’ phone rings all the time. In short, we get used to it.
But once everything is put away at home, it’s total boredom. Then despair. How did we come to see Payet lying on the ground after two minutes without being more surprised than that? How do we keep the fool who threw the bottle from coming and spoiling us on our next Sunday night? What are the appropriate sanctions? 20 minutes make the point.
A clear process in the event of such an incident
Imagine, as had been announced by the announcer of the Parc OL at 10:05 p.m., that the match had resumed: we would not have finished before 12:30 a.m. Great for kids who go back to school at 8 a.m. the next day, for those who have driven hundreds of kilometers to watch the game, for the newspapers (at 20 minutes, for example) which have closure imperatives … A clear protocol must be established if this type of incident occurs again, while the texts clearly specify that it is up to the referee to make the final decision to stop or not an encounter.
“We must agree on the rules, recognized Roxana Maracineanu, the Minister for Sports on BFMTV this Monday morning. Football authorities must write in black and white what happens in the event of a projectile throw (…). The referee needs to know what to do. Yesterday [dimanche], everyone should have agreed to stop the match immediately. “And avoid everyone playing their little score in front of the cameras or on social networks, from Jean-Michel Aulas to the Rhône prefecture, after several hours of kindly putting pressure on Ruddy Buquet in one direction or the other.
Individualization of sanctions
The disciplinary commission of the LFP and the prefectures have tried everything: fines, closed session, total closed session, closed opposing parking, ban for visiting supporters to travel, points taken from teams … However, nothing seems dissuasive enough to stop idiots of all kinds.
“The question is not to sanction more but to sanction better, said to us a few weeks ago Ronan Evain, the general manager of the association Football Supporters Europe. However, to punish better, it is
sanction individually, in a proportionate and legitimate manner, especially since we have at our disposal all the necessary legislative and repressive arsenal. Today, the sanctions as a precaution [fermeture de tribunes, huis clos…] do not respond to this concern for transparency and proportionality. “
This had, it seems, been heard by the state. Following the incidents in Bollaert in mid-September, Roxana Maracineanu indicated that she wanted to resort to “individual sanctions” against football supporters in the event of incidents “. Sunday evening, Thierry Henry, Prime Video consultant, evoked the idea of a lifetime ban for people involved in this type of incident, as is done regularly in the NBA
In its last press release, OL, which claimed in 2018 banning a supporter for life for a Nazi salute, “Intends to be able to strike off the individual for life if the League and the courts give clubs the means to do so”, reproducing between the lines a reproach often addressed to magistrates by professional clubs: that of lacking firmness in legal sanctions pronounced.
The return of anti-projectile nets
This will not prevent a “moron”, says Jean-Michel Aulas, to send anything on the lawn, but it will prevent, perhaps, that the object reaches a player. Sunday, at the Parc OL, no small transportable net, as we had seen at the Vélodrome against PSG, was there to protect Dimitri Payet on the corner, while OL had some behind the scenes, as we have seen during the interruption of the match.
More than transportable nets, OL could eventually have to put back large protective nets, to “cover” its turns. Facing Hoffenheim, in November 2018, they had thus been installed, after a request from UEFA. “We are not going to put nets everywhere for an individual, while 99% of people come to the match with non-belligerent intentions,” JMA replied on Sunday. As is often the case, it is when the incidents are the least virulent and collective that decisions are made. ”
The issue of stewards also returns to the chessboard, not only in Lyon, often from private companies, fewer in number this season, after a few defections following the health crisis. “There is a loss of competence at the level of the stewards, said Ronan Evain. If security is such a priority, then we give the means to the stewards to do their job under correct conditions. When you pay people a pittance, you shouldn’t expect them to put themselves in danger to secure the land. “
Put a coin back in the dialogue with supporters
After the incidents in Lyon, Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior, will receive this Tuesday Jean-Michel Blanquer and Roxana Maracineanu, as well as representatives of the LFP and the FFF to “see what to do”. Unfortunately, without any representative of the supporters. However, the National Supporterism Authority, which did not meet since march, was created especially for this.
Often in the sights of the authorities, the ultras groups also play an important role in maintaining order in their forum. Without being able to control everything. Thus, a few days before the match against Marseille, the Bad Gones, the main group of OL supporters, had made it clear “that no inappropriate gesture would be tolerated”, explains The team. After the bottle thrown at Dimitri Payet, the author was slapped by one of the capos in front of the cameras.
Bad Gones press release: pic.twitter.com/uDlvgzu0TD
– Inside Gones (@InsideGones) November 22, 2021
In Bordeaux, the Ultramarines had, before the match against PSG, and even during the meeting, also called on the supporters not to throw any projectile on the lawn. In vain. Even when the management of a club, in this case OM, and its star player, Dimitri Payet, call for calm before the classic, this did not prevent the Vélodrome lawn from turning into a Trevi fountain. .
A little dignity, please
Sunday evening, we waited a long time before the stoppage of the match was definitively ratified. During these almost two hours of vacuum, no official reaction, no explanation. And then, at the end of the evening, all the decision-makers went there to their heart’s content. The Prefecture and the LFP who return the lift based on a press release, Jean-Michel Aulas who blames the referee and who would almost minimize the incident, Ruddy Buquet who implies that there was external pressure …lunar.
We would have liked, for example, to see Jean-Michel Aulas arrive arm in arm with Pablo Longoria, justify stopping the match without any “but” that holds. The Marseille president is perhaps the only one in this pitiful evening to have had the necessary hindsight, a posture facilitated by the situation of OM, victim from beginning to end in history: “We must find solutions all together , all the French football, so that that does not happen. We have this responsibility, we must find the solution to get out of there. “
A healthy height gain would also have been necessary for the players. The Lyonnais, like the Niçois before them, moreover, could / should have shown solidarity with Dimitri Payet. And seeing Bruno Guimaraes, in the corridors, insulting the Marseillais (“Come and play fucking”) to return to the field, we understand that there is still work to be done at this level.