OM-OL incidents: Lyon condemns “racist behavior” among its supporters

Olympique Lyonnais strongly condemned “the unacceptable racist behavior of individuals in the parking lot” of Lyon supporters on Sunday before the canceled OM-OL match in Marseille, in a press release published Monday by the club.

“The club requested the videos to identify the perpetrators of any act contrary to the law but also contrary to its values,” affirms the club, recalling OL’s desire “to keep them away from the stands”.

In its Monday morning edition, the sports daily L'Equipe mentions songs and gestures of a racist nature on the part of Lyon fans present in the visitor's park at the Vélodrome, who could be subject to sanctions.

These acts are added to the list of incidents which punctuated the evening on Sunday. Before the match counting for the 10th day of Ligue 1, the OL bus, and those of Lyon supporters, were the target of projectiles, which notably injured Italian coach Fabio Grosso.

The meeting was then canceled.

On Monday, the club claimed that the team had returned during the night, after being “well escorted” from the stadium. A new training session should be held on Tuesday, after a day of rest.

The events which took place on Sunday, and which are likely to degrade the image of French football, led to the reaction of several personalities.

While the environmentalist mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet denounced on X, formerly Twitter, “unacceptable” violence towards the Italian coach and the supporters, Bruno Bernard, president of the Métropole de Lyon was more virulent.

“It’s not an incident! It is an attack by Marseille hooligans who are sullying football and the city of Marseille. This is completely unacceptable! They must be banned from football and brought to justice,” he wrote on the social network.

Former OL player, and consultant for the Canal channel, Sydney Govou also reacted by writing: “Let's continue to say nothing, deny the obvious, let pseudo supporters make the law, presidents manage a club in office tweets from their fans and we will slide towards drama while football is all but that!”

Finally, the former president of OL Jean-Michel Aulas denounced incidents which had “already taken place in the past”. He recalls having made “complaints that were not followed up because there were no injuries at the time! enough is enough".