IThere were riots again in the first French soccer league. The game between AS St. Étienne and SCO Angers started on Friday evening just under an hour late after spectators left the stands and threw numerous pyrotechnics and smoke bombs onto the lawn after the players entered.
Thick fog passed through the stadium, the professionals and referees first went back into the dressing room. Numerous police officers stood on the edge of the field. The pictures showed how obviously destroyed goal nets had to be patched afterwards. In the Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, the message was given that the game would be canceled if the smallest incident occurred again. The game started shortly before 10:00 p.m., St. Étienne managed to equalize 2-2 in stoppage time.
Nevertheless, the French record champions remain bottom of the table with just five points from eleven games. The fans of St. Étienne had protested against coach Claude Puel on posters before kick-off and blamed him for the sporting misery.
At the Nordderby Lens against Lille, fans stormed onto the field at halftime and clashed, stadium seats were thrown. There were several injured. At the end of August there was a similar scenario in the game between Nice and Marseille, where after provocations fans also ran onto the pitch and got violent.
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