After the invasion of the lawn by Nice supporters and fights between players, fans and staff, the Nice-OM match was interrupted in the 75th minute. It will be replayed on October 27 in Troyes.
Le Gym was then sanctioned, with one point withdrawn from the standings and three matches behind closed doors. Two have already been purged, against Bordeaux (4-0) and Monaco (2-2), and the third will be against Marseille.
The public can therefore return to the Allianz Riviera, which will not be full on Saturday. Because the South Turn, the one from which the incidents started, will remain empty and will still be empty during the reception of Lyon after the international break, by decision of the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, who has decided to four closing matches for this platform.
“The stadiums are made to be full and to experience emotions, joy … It is in the interest of football. There, we are touched to the heart ”, regretted last week the coach of the Aiglons Christophe Galtier.
In fact, the events of August 22 deeply weighed on the start of the OGCN season, as President Jean-Pierre Rivère recalled the day after the announcement of the sanctions.
Raised stands and nets
“It has been seven years since we went before the disciplinary committee for such facts (after Nice-Bastia in 2014, Editor’s note). Years of work flown in seconds. This will mark us for a long time. A minority of individuals deprived our public of matches and the team of a point, ”he declared.
While his hot communication, when he seemed to want to weigh all the wrongs on Dimitri Payet and OM, had been criticized, the boss of the Aiglons finally explained that his club assumed his “big share of responsibility” in the excesses .
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This resulted in improvements at the Allianz Riviera, where the security device appeared to be very undersized on August 22.
Anti-splash nets will be deployed in both bends. The one from the South stand had arrived a few days before the match against Marseille but could not be tested in time. It will be in place when the grandstand reopens for the coming of Montpellier on November 7. After the incidents, another device was urgently ordered for the North Turn and will be ready on the same date.
Also in the bends, the first rows of the two floors of the stadium have been raised by nearly three meters, making access to the lawn more perilous.
Other measures will be in effect from Saturday’s match, with mobile protective nets at corner points or the ban on bottled water.
Conditional prison
Beyond these logistical decisions, the club also lodged around fifteen complaints against supporters and conducted a necessary dialogue with the Ultras Populaire Sud group.
“Between us, we say things to each other, good or bad,” assures Jean-Pierre Rivière, while too close to the group was criticized in the days following the incidents. “The supporters are committed to very clear things,” he said.
After having condemned the projectile jets, the UPS group announced in a press release that “any person in the group whose behavior could be detrimental to the group and to the club (would be) excluded”.
The supporter who had kicked Payet has already been tried and sentenced to one year suspended prison sentence and five years of stadium ban, the maximum duration. Another supporter is summoned to court on October 13 for a Nazi salute.
Managers and supporters are in any case warned, the Ineos group, owner of the OGCN, did not like what it saw on August 22: “we have exceeded a limit which must never be crossed again”, have wrote the Ratcliffe brothers in a statement.
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