The force of habit: 1′30 ″ of play Sunday at the Olympico between Lyon and Marseille before Dimitri Payet, a corner attendant, collapsed after being hit in the head by a full bottle, thrown by a Lyon supporter (OM fans were banned from traveling). At the end of October, at the Vélodrome, the Classic between OM and Paris-SG had come to an end thanks to the goodwill of the Parisian corner kickers (Angel Di Maria, Neymar, Lionel Messi), who had kicked them quickly (therefore bad) so as not to stay too long in the rain of projectiles that awaited them in a corner of the field.
From then on, on Sunday, the way was clear: basta. The space of the land is supposedly sanctuary. It is violated as soon as a projectile lands there, everyone goes home and everyone is sent back who to the related procedures (we are somewhere between assault, willful violence and attempted homicide), who to the necessary reflections on French football on the brink of collapse, the recurrence of incidents involving the public during large posters (Nice-OM on August 22, Lens-Lille on September 18, Montpellier-Bordeaux and Angers-OM on September 22, Saint-Etienne Angers on October 22, OM-PSG on October 24) indicating a malaise which undoubtedly exceeds the framework of the ball and the sport. Basta, then?
But no. Of course, the players are gone. But the show continues. And a triangle is set in motion: the club president (s), the prefect and the referee of the meeting, who we imagine hostage of the first two in addition to the being of the Professional League, who pays it but to which it does not belong since the arbitration is under the responsibility of the Federation. The mechanics are perfectly regulated. The president of the receiving club pleads his good faith – “I did what I could, and yet …” – to preempt the media battle that is then played, while keeping the link with supporters who have just spoiled the evening but who keep him alive (not easy) and by preparing, above all, the upcoming disciplinary commission, scheduled for this Monday.
On Sunday, OL president Jean-Michel Aulas kept his track record tight: “It’s a paradoxical situation. The bottle that was thrown created an incredible situation. The security services reacted immediately, the author of the bottle throwing was arrested. He is a lonely individual. We had imagined that the match could resume, the referee had decided so before the prosecutor, the departmental director of public security. But when the referee returned to announce to the players that we were resuming, there was a violent reaction from the Marseillais, who demanded that [l’arbitre Rudy Buquet] go check on Dimitri. […] There was such a movement of violence that Mr. Buquet reversed his decision. It is incomprehensible. We are well organized in terms of safety and as the perpetrator of the gesture was apprehended, we could resume the match without any problem. ” Great art: violence in the camp of the Marseillais.
The referee, beacon in the storm of passions
And the OL guarantor of public security, efficient, legalistic. The regional prefect is less visible. He has the ear of the other two (president and referee), unless the other two have his ear, and his status a little unclear on those evenings – guaranteeing the safety of those present, starting moreover with that of Payet – allows him to say a bit of everything and its opposite, the tension and the unpredictability of the moment undoubtedly favoring this sleight of hand in an evolving situation, where we imagine our thinking in motion. Arnaud Rouger, the general manager of the Professional Football League (LFP), agreed with Aulas: “The regional prefecture wanted the match to be able to resume for reasons related to possible disturbances to public order”, at the exit of the stadium.
Which ? Not a Marseille supporter in the area. Then ? The prefecture of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region had cut the grass under the foot of the LFP by press release: “Contrary to what some rumors suggest, the decision to resume the match does not belong to the prefect but to the referee alone.” Under influence? The prefect as an occult advisor, a fantasy in the drama of the match interrupted for throwing projectiles. There remains the arbiter. The more the evening goes on, the more space it takes up: shall we continue? We stop ? The referee is the beacon in the storm of passions.
Football six feet under
So much for the initial idea, but those evenings … “My decision was always not to resume the match, explained Buquet shortly before midnight at the microphone of Amazon Prime. There were other considerations to take into account. For obvious sporting reasons, I decided not to resume the game. There is the field and there is the extra-sportsman and, in the end, the decision came back to me and I made it. “ The prefecture contradicted him: Buquet decided to resume, then he decided to stop. Perhaps on injunction of the League, probably also because the Marseille players would not have lent themselves to this circus.
The referee is a small thing, tossed about in a field of force that crushes him. But what force field? Who can reasonably think that the game could resume on Sunday? In what capacity? In what sector of activity does the employee run under insults and projectiles? Where does it exist? To even consider it is to drive football six feet under the ground.
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