The French football circuit is facing quite a major turbulence in the last few months, with a lot of games getting abandoned due to crowd trouble and turbulence. Another such incident took place on Friday, with a French Cup round of 64 tie between Paris FC and Olympique Lyonnais getting abandoned after the half-time break.
Paris FC were hosting the former French champions at the Charlety stadium, and the hosts had an early breakthrough, with Gaetan Laura scoring a surprise opening goal for the second division side. They somehow managed to keep out Lyon for a long time, but at the stroke of half-time, Moussa Dembele scored the equaliser, and it frustrated the home fans.
Supporters in the away stand picked up a fight with the hosts and things started unravelling very quick. Some of the supporters made it to the pitch and lit up flares, which made it difficult for the game to continue and the players were made to flee the pitch. The stadium announcer had requested the fans to leave the playing area, but was not very successful at it.
The game was eventually abandoned by the authorities after the condition was deemed unplayable, keeping the safety of players and staff in mind.
This isn’t the first time such an incident has occurred in France, and the away team in this fixture, Lyon, have already been docked a point in the league after their game against Marseille getting abandoned. Dimitri Payet was hit on the head by a water bottle while he was taking a corner, because of which the game was stopped for 2 hours, before it got called off.
Nice were the other side who were docked two points after things got pretty ugly during their clash against Marseille. Something similar happened in the Northern derby between Lens and Lille, where objects were thrown at players causing police riots.
The incidents have occurred so frequently, that the French government had to make its statement on punishing the hooligans. It was said in a statement by the government that a decision to abandon the game will be taken within 30 minutes if a player or coaching staff member is injured because of crowd disturbance.
