“OGC Nice condemns in the strongest terms the song about Emiliano Sala heard on Wednesday evening at the Allianz Riviera,” the Nice club said in a statement after Les Aiglons’ 4-2 victory against AS Saint-Etienne in a late match of the 36th day of Ligue 1 football.
“The club in no way recognizes its values or those of the entire red and black family in this unthinkable and abject provocation of a minority of its supporters”, continued the club, bringing “its support to the family and to those close to Emiliano Sala”.
Nice coach Christophe Galtier “apologized to Emiliano Sala’s family and to FC Nantes, on behalf of (his) players, technical and medical staff”.
“I have no words to describe what we heard. When we got back to the locker room, there were no cries, no joy… but amazement”, he added.
“You can hear a lot of things in a football stadium. But there, where do the insults against a deceased footballer come from? They came from a few people, but they were not only three. But what they stay at home with their bottles and their insults. If this is our society, we’re in deep shit,” he said.
Emiliano Sala, 28, lost his life in early 2019 while on a private plane to Wales, where he had just been transferred to the Cardiff club for 17 million euros . The small plane on which the player was traveling crashed in the English Channel on January 21, 2019, in difficult weather.
“He’s an Argentinian who doesn’t swim well, Emiliano underwater”, sang part of the Nice public around the 9th minute, in reference to the former N.9 of FC Nantes, to make fun of the club de Loire-Atlantique against whom the Aiglons lost the Coupe de France final on Saturday evening (1-0) at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
The Nice public also hurled insults at Stéphanie Frappart, the referee of this final, guilty in their eyes of having awarded an imaginary penalty to the Nantes Canaries.
