A Ligue 1 game between Nice and Marseille was abandoned, due to incidents of fan violence. The Marseille team refused to get on the pitch, as the fans started to throw projectiles and even invade the field. This unruly behaviour was started by Nice fans when it was 15 minutes to go for the match to end. This lead to the match initially being suspended for some time.
The league organisers decided to restart the game, with Nice leading 1-0, but the opposing team refused to get on to the ground. The Nice players were warming up, but as Marseille did not get out from their locker room, the referee was forced to blow the whistle and award a win to the home team, Nice. The match was abandoned, with 15 minutes still left to play. If usual rules are applied, in the case of Ligue 1, then Nice has an automatic 3-0 win.
Marseille president Pablo Longoria said that the league decides to restart the match and for the safety of their players who were attacked by Nice fans, they decided not to get on to the field because their safety wasn’t guaranteed.
Pablo said, “The referee agreed with us. He confirmed to us that safety wasn’t guaranteed, he didn’t want to restart the match. But the league decided to restart. That’s unacceptable for us and that’s why we decided not to restart the match and to return to Marseille.”
The fan violence against Marseille starred when someone in the crowd threw a bottle and it hit Dimitri Payet on the back. The stadium announcer already warned fans not to throw projectiles. Payet threw the bottle back, enraging Nice fans who invaded the pitch. The referee decided to stop the game and sent the players back into their changing rooms.
There have been unverified photos of Payet with blood and scratches on his back. Fellow players, Matteo Guendouzi and Luan Peres were also seen with strangle marks on their necks in pictures circulating within social media.
Nice President Jean-Pierre Rivère said it was disappointing that his Marseille colleagues decided not to restart the game and know that their fans threw bottles but puts blame on players like Payet who threw it back, as the reason why the fans got onto the pitch. He thinks that Marseille security shouldn’t have got involved and Nice players also got hurt. He thought it was safe to restart the game as the fans “assured” that there won’t be a disturbance if the match restarts.
