After Pablo Longoria, it was Steve Mandanda who stepped up to defend his teammates and justify the decision not to resume the meeting. On the club’s official website, the Olympian captain pointed out the lack of security in the Nice enclosure from the roof.
Steve Mandanda’s reaction
“We are very clearly shocked by what happened. It is for us something unacceptable that the supporters can enter the field like that. There have been a lot of things that have happened in the start, already with a lot of throwing bottles.
Then, we already found ourselves in Montpellier with Val ‘(Rongier) who was affected. Today, I have often been targeted since the start of the match. Then it happened on Dim ‘(Payet), then after the supporters who return it is unacceptable.
What I told the delegate is that for us players, security was no longer. We found ourselves in danger because there are a lot of players who found themselves targeted. When we see that there are between 500 and 1000 supporters who come into the field to come and attack us, it is something that we cannot tolerate. For all these reasons, we cannot return to the field because we do not feel safe.
The referees were with us to interrupt the match simply because they felt that the safety was not there. The delegate replied that in relation to the discussion with the prefect and the police service, they felt that it was possible. As I told them, you did not experience what we experienced in the field and the préfet is not here today. Our safety is the most important and on that aspect, we did not feel safe. “
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