Scandal at big game in Lyon – Marseilles Payet hit by bottle

The big game between Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille is overshadowed by an ugly scene. A corner kick leads to a scandal – the game is interrupted for a long time.

These are scenes that football doesn’t need: the French big game League 1 between Olympic lyon and Olympique Marseille it came to a scandal on Sunday evening. The lot? Was interrupted for almost two hours before it became clear in the late evening: It couldn’t go on. Cancellation.

What happened?

The 3rd minute in the Parc OL: Marseilles midfield star Dimitri Payet marching to take a corner. The ex-national player lays down the ball – and is suddenly hit on the head by a filled water bottle! Payet immediately collapses in pain and is treated for minutes. Then both teams decide together: The game is interrupted, the teams leave the field and go to the dressing room. A good sign: Payet was also able to stand again, leaving the place with ice packs on his temple.

The result: The game – kick-off was at 8:45 p.m. – was only interrupted for almost two hours, at the end it was completely canceled. Curious: after more than an hour, the Lyon players came back to warm up on the pitch. The media reported that some professionals did not understand the decision that the match should be continued – the league association also regretted the decision. But then there was no new kick-off. The stadium announcer announced the referee’s decision via the stadium microphone when the majority of the spectators had already left.

Meanwhile, the French journalist Alexis Menuge reported on “DAZN” that the perpetrator had been found among the fans and that he was currently being interrogated by the police.

Luck in misfortune: Only Lyon fans were allowed into the stadium – if the known aggressive Marseille supporters had also been in the stands, there could have been more serious riots. In purely sporting terms, the match between the long-standing top teams Lyon and Marseille was no longer a highlight – Lyon is currently only seventh in Ligue 1, “OM” is after all fourth.

Again and again goal: Payet

On August 22nd, Payet was already the victim of a bottle throw. In the game at OGC Nice, he was hit in the back and then threw the bottle back towards the audience. This was followed by a storm of space from Nice supporters and scuffles with players and supervisors.

The game that was canceled was made up for on neutral ground (1: 1). Nice had to play a ghost game. For his involvement in the scuffle, Olympique Marseille fitness trainer Pablo Fernandez has been banned for the remainder of the season until June 30, 2022. OM players Payet and Alvaro Gonzalez had been suspended. A month later, fans at the north derby between RC Lens and champions OSC Lille caused the game to be interrupted by riots.