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Lyon – Marseille – Aggression of Payet – The evening when Ligue 1 hit rock bottom, and for good

There were plenty of good reasons to be happy about this OL – OM. The Paqueta-Payet duel, the tactical confrontation between two coaches with delicious intentions (Bosz and Sampaoli), the reaction of Lyon after the humiliation in Rennes, that of OM after the draw against Metz and then, this incandescent rivalry . After three minutes and fifty-eight seconds of play, everything was swept away by the stupidity of a supporter. The beautiful Sunday poster turned into a bad remake. Once again, Dimitri Payet was targeted. A bottle filled with water thrown at full speed and over the head of the Reunionese, arms outstretched for long minutes, turned the evening into disgust.

What sanctions after OL-OM? “This time, the League has no right to be wrong”

This Sunday at 8:48 p.m., Ligue 1 hit rock bottom for the first time. She has reached a point of no return. A player has been prevented from exercising his profession, his physical integrity has been affected and no one knows what the consequences will be in the short, medium or long term for the Marseille captain. Today is the incident too many in an escalation that will necessarily lead Ligue 1 into the wall. First, because the event is too serious this time. On the scale of stupidity, OL supporters – even if all are obviously not responsible, far from it – have won the pompom. Then because it touches one of the three biggest posters of the season and it is necessary, in fact, to make an example of it. Because the image has already toured Europe and the League has the opportunity to make it a case law.

3’58 “after the start of the OL-OM shock: Payet receives a bottle on his head and collapses

Grotesque evening

Enough is enough. In three months, from Montpellier to Nice, from Saint-Etienne to Lens, five matches had to be interrupted for throwing bottles, smoke and / or invading the ground. The aggression of Dimitri Payet is the last straw. Will the LFP have strong enough backs and clear enough ideas to take the necessary sanctions and stop the escalation? The course of the evening leaves little hope. The gravity of the events required some form of sacred union. When a player suffers such aggression, this is how it should have been.

Dimitri Payet hit by a bottle

Credit: Getty Images

But the procrastination of this Sunday has added grotesque and confusion to an endless evening. A player was touched in his flesh but the actors of the evening hesitated, for two hours, to know whether to resume the meeting. The match should never have resumed but the announcer announced the opposite at 10 p.m. The Lyonnais even restarted their warm-up while the LFP, at the same time, gave birth to a press release condemning this decision while taking great care to avoid any responsibility in this affair. It will be remembered that the laxity, even cowardice, of the League and its disciplinary committee since the start of the season has spread the idea of ​​a weak power which leaves the field to the worst stupidities. Now it’s up to her to be exemplary.

Laxity, cowardice and no sacred union

When, finally, everything is back to normal, Jean-Michel Aulas pleaded, among our colleagues at Prime Video, the “isolated act“before attacking the referee of the meeting Ruddy Buquet, who took”only the decision not to resume the meeting“, and to be surprised at the reaction”vigorous“of the Marseillais not to want to take again the part. Later still, the prefecture got involved in tweets which questioned the declarations of Ruddy Buquet (“My sporting decision has always been not to resume the match“).

Neither the LFP nor the public authorities nor the referee nor the OL wanted to take responsibility for this gruesome evening, sending each other the hot potato. Basically, the culprit (s) in this case does not matter. For the sacred union, we will come back. OL boss defended his chapel in an evening that called for height gain. But for a few months, as soon as it leaves the lawn, Ligue 1 flies at the level of the daisies even though it offers perhaps its best show for a long time. Such a waste…

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