Eight months after his terrible attack on referee M. Millot during an OL-Brest (2-1), on March 2, 2024, Paulo Fonseca is still suspended. Certainly, the tactician can now go to his players' locker room, but he still cannot carry out all his official functions. For this, we will have to wait until November 30, 2025, the Portuguese having received a progressive sentence of 9 months in total from the Professional Football League (LFP) at that time.
Given the results displayed by Lyon since this event (20 wins, 2 draws and 8 defeats), the system put in place by Fonseca seems to have worked. “We have adapted very well to this situation. The technical team also played an essential role,” he was satisfied in an interview delivered to the Lusitanian media Record. Even if, he confides, this return closer to his players is “a great satisfaction to be with the team again in important moments”.
Since the announcement of his sentence, several months have passed. However, the OL tactician still sticks to his positions. “
These were obviously very difficult times, I think it was an excessive and unfair sanction. » Paulo Fonseca even talked about the severity of his sentence. “We don’t remember a sanction like this in recent football. »
A “political decision”
The least we can say is that he doesn't lose his temper. On the contrary, the Lyon coach believes he was used to
“serve as an example. »: “ I think we need to put things in context. In the weeks before my sanction, the president of Marseille had been sanctioned for accusing the league of corruption. The weekend before the match, there was an attack on a referee in the neighborhoods. And, basically, I think they wanted to make my case an example for French football at that time. I think I should pay for what I did, not for being an example. »
Even if it means directly calling into question the governing bodies of French football in the face of this “unfairness” proclaimed by Paulo Fonseca. “ It was not only a sporting decision, but also a political decision, since politicians were also involved. The Minister of Sports was one of the people involved and there was very strong political pressure for this to serve as an example. » While comparing his situation to other examples occurring in neighboring championships. “ A few weeks later I saw an example of a player in Portugal who did the same thing and was not punished. Jürgen Klopp himself admitted in an interview that if he had been in my place he probably would have been banned, because this happened to him often. I think it was extremely excessive. »
