Crowd violence on Friday forced the French Cup game between Olympique Lyonnais and Paris FC to be abandoned at 1-1.
At halftime, supporters threw flares, the field was invaded and fights broke out in the stands.
The start of the second half at Stade Sebastien Charlety was delayed for about 50 minutes when stadium authorities announced the game was abandoned.
Photo: AFP
Paris FC president Pierre Ferracci blamed Lyon.
“There’s a bunch of idiots who ruined everything, as usual.” Ferracci told French radio broadcaster RMC. “And that bunch of idiots, it’s the Lyon ultras... It’s obvious that the ultras came to make a mess, as usual.”
Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas sought to downplay the culpability of his club’s supporters.
“There are obviously shared responsibilities,” Aulas told a news conference. “I don’t think that we are responsible for the incidents.”
A spectator named Louis gave his account of the violence to RMC.
“At halftime, there were guys behind who climbed up the fence and started fighting. There were a lot of people wearing balaclavas, they had belts, they wanted to smash as many faces as they could,” he said. “I don’t know if they can be called supporters, but it’s a part of the Lyon section that caused a huge crowd rush. There was a panic reaction. They are nuts.”
“Frankly, I was scared for my safety. It’s mind-boggling after everything that happened those past few months, especially with Lyon. The security, that was zero. The riot police came 10 minutes later,” he added.
Lyon supporters are under increasing scrutiny after a French league home game was abandoned last month because Olympique de Marseille midfielder Dimitri Payet was hit on the head by a bottle of water thrown from the stands.
Lyon was docked a point by the disciplinary commission, while Aulas was handed a 10-game ban for intimidating comments made to the referee who decided to abandon the game.
Crowd violence has been a recurring issue for French soccer this season.
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