Shaken by the incidents in Marseille, OL must answer for the abject behavior of a certain segment of its supporters.
The stone crushing of the Lyon bus approaching the VĂ©lodrome last Sunday did not completely eclipse the scandalous attitude of certain Rhone supporters in the visitors’ parking lot. Various videos and photos taken on the sidelines of a meeting which ultimately never took place between OM and OL betray at least six Les Gones supporters with outstretched arms, brandished French passports or uttered monkey cries. Images which necessarily plunge the club of the capital of Gaul into embarrassment.
OL, which filed a complaint against With the help of other supporters, the small group Mezza Lyon seems to have been surrounded – an undeclared association, without legal status, which has been raging in Lyon since 2006, advocating racism and xenophobia, even going to the point of praying in front of the tomb of the father of fascism. Benito Mussolini or displaying Nazi symbols.
An “assumed” nationalism in the stands
“ These individuals are independent and registered with the sympathizers program, for which you must give your identity card, but it is not written on their foreheads that they are from the Mezzaemphasizes to L’Equipe Xavier Pierrot, the deputy general director of OL. In the yard, we know who is there, but on the videos, we don’t know who is who. The guy holding the standard (a white map of France on a black background, editor’s note)I know his face, but not his identity. »
If such individuals are officially banned from stadiums in Lyon, the standard in question is regularly displayed in the parks dedicated to away Rhone supporters. Within the confines of Groupama Stadium, however, everything is not clear. “ The general state of mind in the turns is rather nationalist and patriotic, that’s assumed, confides to the sports daily aroused a subscriber from the South turn. The problem is that some people take advantage of it to go further. » A very sad admission for a no less worrying conclusion this Sunday in the columns of L’Equipe: “ There is an obvious gap between far-right identitarians and hooliganism in Lyon “. An observation which clearly leaves the club and the public authorities powerless.
