Olympique Lyonnais will challenge the decision of the Professional Football League (LFP) to play the Lyon-Reims match behind closed doors on Wednesday. Sanction taken following the stoppage of the OL-OM meeting on November 21 after the now infamous episode of the bottle throwing at the head of Dimitri Payet.
The Rhone club will go to a conciliation hearing before the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). The sanction of the LFP was taken as a precaution, pending a final measure on December 8.
After four short minutes of play, the OL-OM match was stopped by the referee, after the bottle was thrown from the north bend of Groupama Stadium by an individual sentenced by the courts to six months suspended prison sentence and five years. stadium ban.
In a press release, OL again pleaded that it was an “individual and isolated act”, which cannot be compared to “the vast majority of collective incidents” that have occurred in football stadiums since. the start of the season.
“It is imperative that a distinction be made between collective acts of violence and degradation, and isolated acts that no one can anticipate or prevent,” insisted Olympique Lyonnais.
In his defense, OL believes that if the bottle thrower could be judged “less than 48 hours” after the fact, it is thanks to the video surveillance which made it possible to identify him, to the stewards who exfiltrated him. from the platform and handed over to the police, and to his placement in police custody “in the judicial room provided for this purpose” inside the sports arena.
OL took a civil action against the defendant facing a “possible loss of revenue exceeding 3.5 million euros” for the match against OM, in the event of reimbursement of tickets, “not to mention the repercussions of the precautionary measure and disciplinary consequences ”, in an already difficult context of emerging from the health crisis.
OL have at the same time announced the installation of protective nets in front of the corners of their stadium.
