Paulo Fonseca's adventure at Olympique Lyonnais does not necessarily happen as planned. Arrived last January, the Portuguese coach can no longer direct the Ligue 1 meetings of his team and has a ban on access to the locker room on matches.
For good reason, a nine-month suspension which he received after having attacked the referee of the meeting between his team at the Brest stadium (2-1) in March. This Thursday evening, Paulo Fonseca will be present on the bench against Manchester United, on behalf of the return match of the Europa League quarters.
On the sidelines of this meeting, the Lyon coach gave an interview to the newspaper The Team, during which he returned to his suspension. The Portuguese evokes his gesture with a lot of regret and acknowledges having made an error. “I have never, even in my personal life or in my childhood, committed the slightest attackhe assures. I have always been a very quiet person. So I don't want to look for excuses or give the impression that I justify myself. I was wrong, I recognize it and I assume that I should be sanctioned. At that time of the match there was a strong tension, I had just received a red card because I had disputed after a fault, with respect. »»
Paulo Fonseca cracked because of the pressure?
Questioned On the reasons for his slippage, he confides that he was carried away by arbitral decisions which he considered incomprehensible. “” Why did I have such a strong reaction? I admit that I did not like the way the referee directed the match ”he admits. But Benoît Millot's decisions do not seem to be the only reasons for the behavior of Paulo Fonseca. He also admits that his Limoge of AC Milan has left traces: “Between Milan, where I was thanked during the season for the first time in my career, and Lyon, I didn't really cut. And you cannot imagine the pressure that is to train in Milan! Maybe I should have taken a break after Milan, but I don't want to look for excuses. ”
Even if he can still direct his team in the Europa League, Paulo Fonseca will a priori have to wait until next December to find the benches of Ligue 1.. The former LOSC coach judges that his sanction is unfair. “I have to pay, but I have to pay for what I did: to have shouted in the face of the referee. No one can say that I did more, he believes. They wanted to make me an example in relation to what French football was going through the arbitration at that time. Many people have expressed themselves on this subject, not football people, but politicians, and we felt the pressure. »»
The 52 -year -old technician therefore believes that the nine -month -old sanction was decided to serve as an example in a context where the referees were targeted, especially after the attack by the president of Olympique de Marseille, Pablo Longoria. For its part, the Rhone club has decided to seize the French Olympic and sports committee (National Olympic and Sports) in order to obtain an advisory opinion to convince the LFP to reduce the sentence of its coach.
