PARIS : French football plunged into a new abyss of violence after the Olympique de Marseille v Olympique Lyonnais game was called off when the visitors' bus was pelted with stones and beer bottles, injuring Lyon coach Fabio Grosso on Sunday.
Grosso sustained face injuries in another episode of fans brutality to rock Ligue 1, which two years ago was marred by several acts of violence and crowd troubles.
The indicents are a bad look for the LFP, who have been negociating a TV rights deal for 2024-29, with the tender ending on Thursday, and made for embarrassing footage less than a year before the Paris 2024 Olympics. "OL regrets that this type of situation recurs every year in Marseille and calls on the authorities to assess the seriousness and repetition of this type of incident before an even more serious tragedy occurs," Lyon said in a statement, with the club adding they would lodge a formal legal complaint."This is something that cannot happen in football. Even if it happened outside of the stadium, it is unacceptbale. I am angry and appalled by the situation.