There was electricity in the air, Tuesday evening, during the last minutes of the round of 16 of the Coupe de France between Olympique de Marseille and LOSC (1-1, 3-4 tab). The match was notably marked by strong tensions involving Roberto De Zerbi, Mehdi Benatia, the president of Lille Olivier Létang and the refereeing body.
“Explain to me why the president of Lille goes down on the field to speak with the fourth referee, for the second time here because he did it in L1?,” said the Italian technician. The President of the Republic could do it, but the president of a club? His place is in the stands and if no one says something to him, I’ll tell him. I didn’t see Pablo Longoria speaking with the fourth official. Many things are strange and I have difficulty understanding them. In thirty years of football, I had never seen a club president come down to speak with representatives of the refereeing body.”
Létang responds to De Zerbi
While Mehdi Benatia also castigated the behavior of Mr. Turpin and the attitude of Olivier Létang, the Lille president retorted in equally blunt terms.
“What he said at the press conference (De Zerbi, editor’s note)? That doesn’t interest me, that. I didn’t speak to him, I didn’t speak to him. So, let him do his job as a coach and then everything will be fine… I simply mentioned the fact that Mr. Turpin had played 25 seconds more, in addition to added time. And so, it ended very well with the fourth referee Mr. Stinat. So I don’t see why the OM coach came to talk to me, because I wasn’t talking to him at all”. Atmosphere…
