Violence off the field is the reason behind the nervy and farcical build-up to Rangers’ trip to Lyons.
Payet holds his head after being hit by a bottle of water thrown by Lyons fans.
PHILIPPE DESMAZES/GETTY IMAGES
While the mixed messaging over whether Rangers fans would be admitted to the Groupama Stadium is hard to excuse, the backdrop to tomorrow’s match serves to explain why the prospect of 2,200 Rangers fans descending upon Lyons left some in France feeling apprehensive.
The first four months of the French season have been blighted by a slew of fan-related disorder, leaving the game in a state of high alert. There have been multiple attacks on players by fans, violent confrontations between supporters, and two Ligue 1 games have had to be abandoned.
In response, a taskforce made up of government ministers and leading officials from French football was convened at the end of November and asked to come up with measures to restore calm. It is due to announce its proposals in the coming days. The French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu has warned that “the survival of French football is at stake”.
Lyons are under particular scrutiny. Their home game with rivals Marseilles on November 21 was abandoned in the fourth minute after the visiting midfielder Dimitri Payet was hit on the side of the head by a plastic water bottle thrown from the crowd. Ligue 1’s disciplinary commission is due to announce the result of its investigation into the match today. Lyons have already been forced to play one league game behind closed doors — a 2-1 home defeat by Reims last week — and could face further sanctions.
When Nice’s home game with Marseilles in late August had to be called off (Payet had again been felled by a water bottle lobbed from the stands), Nice were docked two points — one of which was suspended — and the match was replayed behind closed doors on neutral turf in Troyes in late October.
There has been trouble around Lyons’ two previous Europa League home games this season, with the fixtures against both Brondby and Sparta Prague marred by clashes between rival fans in the city centre.
Lyons is additionally scheduled to stage its annual Festival of Light between Thursday and Saturday, which the French Ministry of the Interior said would place further strain on local police resources when it announced its now overturned decision to ban Rangers fans from attending the game.
Lyon’s hardcore supporters, most notably those belonging to the Bad Gones (‘Bad Kids’) ultras group, have a reputation for unruly and intimidating behaviour.
There are also known to be far-right elements within the Lyons fan base: one supporter was issued with a lifetime ban by the club after being caught on camera performing a Nazi salute during a Champions League away game at Manchester City in September 2018.
The conduct of French football supporters has been under the spotlight ever since the opening weekend of the season in early August, when Marseilles’ players were pelted with missiles as they celebrated a late winner in a 3-2 success at Montpellier.
After the Nice-Marseilles game was abandoned later the same month, trouble erupted at the Derby du Nord in mid-September when more than 100 Lens fans poured on to the pitch to confront visiting supporters from Lille.
Four days later, supporters from Angers and Marseilles fought on the pitch following a 0-0 draw between their clubs, for which Marseilles received a suspended one-point deduction and a ban on their fans travelling to away games until the end of the year.
In late October, kick-off in Saint- Étienne’s home game with Angers was held up for an hour after home fans protesting against the club’s management threw lit flares on to the pitch.
There were also 21 arrests for disorder during Paris Saint-Germain’s 0-0 draw at Marseilles, during which a pitch invader who ran towards Lionel Messi had to be dragged away by stewards.
Explanations for the unrest range from the boiling over of Covid-related frustrations to poorly organised security operations and a nationwide shortage of experienced stewards.
With Lyons already having qualified for the last 16 as group A winners and Rangers assured of a place in the preliminary knockout round, there will be little at stake when the teams take to the field tomorrow evening.
But, in France this season, what happens on the pitch has only been half the story.
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