This is the terrible image that shook European football last weekend. While Ligue 1 hoped to offer a great Sunday evening poster with this traditional Olympico, pitting Olympique de Marseille against Olympique Lyonnais on the pitch at the Orange Vélodrome, which always smells of powder. The meeting took a disastrous turn with the stoning of the official OL bus by Marseille supporters, the serious injury to the eye of Fabio Grosso, who received a glass bottle in the face, the attacks on the other Lyon buses carrying the supporters but also the Nazi salutes, the monkey cries and the racist chants of some of the Lyon groups in the park. A scenario which, once again after the episode at the Stade de France during the 2022 Champions League final and less than a year before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, offered catastrophic publicity to French football. Numerous serious and isolated facts which led the commissioners of the Professional Football League (LFP) in agreement with the Marseille and Lyon presidencies as well as the referee François Letexier to postpone the meeting initially scheduled for Sunday evening, as part of the 10th daytime.
The rest after this ad
Facing real difficulties, particularly linked to the sale of its TV rights for the broadcast of its championships, the LFP must also juggle serious events in the stands since the end of restrictions linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, illustrated by several matches including MHSC-Clermont, OM-MHSC, Lens-LOSC, OM-Nice, OM-OL, ASSE-AJA and Bordeaux-Rodez. Serious excesses that our neighbors have not failed to comment on in recent months. If there is a country bordering France that had a little eye on the Vélodrome on Sunday evening, it is Italy with this “Tactico” between two Italian coaches Gennaro Gattuso and Fabio Grosso. The attack of which the latter was the victim was also the subject of an editorial signed by the very famous Italian sociologist and journalist Pippo Russo in the columns of Transfer market : “Last night’s episode was just the most sensational. The injury of Lyon coach Fabio Grosso by Marseille hooligans raises the level of urgency of violence around French football, but it is far from being an isolated episode. Indeed, it is part of a series which takes the form of an escalation and makes France a European emergency in terms of violence linked to football. In this trend, the propensity to eliminate the barrier between the violence of the stadium and the protagonists of the match stands out.writes Russo, also recalling the episode with Clermont goalkeeper Mory Diaw who received a smoke bomb on the head, during Montpellier-Clermont.
Read OL: Sidney Govou cannot digest the incidents against OM
French hooliganism singled out
The Italian newspaper The Republic, one of the largest daily newspapers in the country, published this Tuesday a mini-investigation in the form of a retrospective entitled “Marseille-Lyon Affair: threats, blood and outstretched arms, France taken hostage by the ultras” signed Emmanuel Gamba. This axis is taking up more and more space in the vision of French football from abroad: “in France, I believe there is a serious problem of ultra violence. In European championships and cups, it is almost usual for incidents to occur with French supporters, inside or outside the stadium. The French government had more than 500 police officers for a very high-risk match, but incidents like this happen in the same way: how is this possible? You need to investigate how security measures are handled in football matches. Whoever does this kind of violent action must be caught and punished. The “normal” public cannot suffer because of some of the supporters”tells us the Italian journalist Giacomo Morandin.
The rest after this ad
During the attack on the official Olympique Lyonnais bus by a group of Marseille supporters, Fabio Grosso was seriously injured, requiring urgent and rapid intervention by the club doctors who took care of the native of Rome. Nearly 12 stitches were needed to sew up Grosso’s brow bone. The images of the bloody face and the thick bandage on the young coach’s head shocked Italy: “What happened on Sunday was horrible. We know that it’s in France, but it can happen in Italy, there are situations which can generate very strong tensions between the teams. But this time, it went beyond the limits. Fabio Grosso’s luck is that he certainly had to react quickly to avoid having much more serious or serious injuries than those he already had. There is less attention on French football at the moment so it has not had as big an impact as one might expect (in Italy, editor’s note). But those who follow sport here were frozen following the images which arrived from Marseille.Italian journalist Valentina Clemente told Foot Market.
Indeed, if seeing buses stoned is unfortunately not such a rare phenomenon, the fact that a coach or a player is so seriously affected in this turbulence of supporters is nevertheless much more unique. The photos published on the networks and relayed in the European presses really caused alarm in Italy, to the point of having occupied part of the national football coverage recently: “The images of Grosso bloodied and hit by stones from OM ultras caused a lot of noise. On social networks and websites there has been a lot of talk about it and not only because it was an Italian and a world champion in 2006 as much because it is an act of violence that nothing must have something to do with a football match”, journalist Alessandro Mossini tells us. In this misfortune, Fabio Grosso was able to count on rapid medical intervention and the support of the two clubs, the media, regional politicians but also the LFP, which the journalist Diego Fornero wants to emphasize: “I hope something will be done to resolve the problem of ultra violence. This incident could have had even more serious consequences and I very much appreciate the fact that the incident was also condemned by the French sports press and by institutions. There is no magic formula, but we need more controls within the supporters’ organization.he tells us.
The rest after this ad
Often concerned by problems linked to its supporters, the supporters groups of Olympique de Marseille do not have the best reputation in Italy. And journalist Alessandro Mossini remembers problems already in the 80s: “For a long time in France, I believe that there has been a problem linked to violence by supporters, this is not the first case of violent acts and disqualification. Then, it is not fair to generalize, but we cannot fail to notice that it is often Olympique de Marseille. They are some of the most violent supporters in Europe and something happens every year, in France and during the cups. I think it is time to seriously put a stop to those who commit violent acts and especially to them. Personally, I went to the old Vélodrome during Marseille-Bologna in the 1998 UEFA Cup and I still remember it as an evening of clashes and great fear.
Italy also judges Grosso’s debut
The weeks follow one another and are sadly similar for Olympique Lyonnais. The change of coach, made on September 16 with the departure of Laurent Blanc and the arrival of Fabio Grosso, does not yet seem to be bearing fruit. Indeed, OL suffered six defeats in nine days of the championship. Which places the Gones in the 18th and last position in Ligue 1. For the moment, the mayonnaise is not taking with Fabio Grosso who had a praised campaign in Italy with Frosinone last season in Serie B: “In Italy, Grosso doesn’t have much public trust as a coach, but after his promotion to Serie A with Frosinone last year, he deserved a big chance. A context like Lyon is certainly interesting, but at the moment being the coach of OL is a really heavy responsibility, given the situation surrounding the club. The defeat against Clermont is the symbol of the historic moment that Lyon is experiencing: Grosso will have to be good to find solutions, but he seems a little abandoned to himself by the management.Giacomo Morandin analyzed for us.
The rest after this ad
Complicated results in the form of a disastrous symbol for a club which is coming out of two glorious decades in France under the presidency of Jean-Michel Aulas, who officially ceded his leadership chair to the American John Textor. : “When you talk about Grosso in Italy, we mainly talk about the 2006 World Cup. As far as coaching is concerned, he does not have such a long career that means he has left a mark in each of the clubs where he happened. I think that, for him, coming to France could be a significant challenge in order to gain more experience. OL is a club whose coat of arms always speaks. On the other hand, the club’s situation was not easy. So it was a challenge within a challenge. Overall, we see that the difficulties have accumulated. But we could also say that it was predictable when you don’t have clarity at the societal level. I think he took this opportunity in a broader sense. But on the other hand, he found himself facing more complicated situations than he thought.Valentina Clemente tells us.
“And now?”, asks Italy
Already in great difficulty since his arrival at the head of OL, Fabio Grosso will now have to continue his difficult mission of saving Les Gones, with the consequences of obvious trauma. Moreover, the Italian was absent from the training session on Tuesday: “We cannot say whether he should continue or not. This event perhaps further complicates his task. But if he leaves after what happened to him, it would give even more importance to people who have nothing to do with the sport but who are there to fight. It’s not fair to football in general and French football even more so, but it will perhaps allow us to experience this in better conditions now. We hope to see him continue and above all to continue in a more stable context so that he can give his best and have the support he deserves. explains Valentina Clemente. Waiting to find the Rhodaniens on the lawns of Ligue 1, the media depression around OL is not likely to calm the locker room, while Fabio Grosso had started looking for a mole within his group last week.
The rest after this ad
Despite a complicated start with Les Gones, some Italian observers see it above all as proof of the instability within Olympique Lyonnais, which is beginning to erode any chances of healthy development, especially for a coach like Grosso who needs a united group to establish its philosophy: “On sporting results, in fact Grosso has difficulties. I believe he is a coach who needs to create great empathy with his players, he is prepared tactically but he is even stronger on a human level. I saw him up close when he was coaching the Juventus youth team and I was sure he was going to succeed. In Frosinone, he created a really compact group, but maybe Lyon needs different things. Beyond the coach, I believe that the squad is not excellent, there have been big sales and Lacazette alone is not enough to lead the team to other results., Diego Fornero explains to us. It is true that beyond the game produced or the negative results, the latest media outings from John Textor and the numerous departures in the club’s organization chart are not tempting ingredients to get a club out of a deep total crisis.
Pub. 10/31/2023 5:01 p.m. Updated 10/31/2023 6:32 p.m.
2023-10-31 16:01:00
#Fabio #Grossos #misfortunes #Italy #react
