French football again left reeling by rioting fans as Olympics loom

PARIS :French football was again marred by violence after Olympique de Marseille's Ligue 1 match against Olympique Lyonnais was called off on Sunday when the visitors' bus and some fans were pelted with stones and beer bottles, injuring Lyon coach Fabio Grosso.

Grosso, a World Cup winner with Italy in 2006, sustained facial injuries during the incident, leaving league officials to deal with another episode of rioting fans.

Since Sunday's incidents happened outside Marseille's Stade Velodrome, the French League (LFP) have no jurisdiction to impose points deductions, although it could decide that the game has to be played behind closed doors.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said nine people had been detained so far. "I hope the highest possible prison sentences will be handed to those fans that ruined the party for everyone," he added on BFM TV.

The incidents are a bad look for the LFP, who have been negotiating a TV rights deal for 2024-29, with the tender ending on Thursday, and made for embarrassing footage less than a year before the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Some preliminary round Olympic matches will be played in Marseille, where violence erupted at the 1998 World Cup between England fans and French police.

"OL regrets that this type of situation recurs every year in Marseille and calls on the authorities to assess the seriousness and repetition of this type of incident before an even more serious tragedy occurs," Lyon said in a statement, with the club adding they would lodge a formal legal complaint.

"What happened to Fabio Grosso is totally unacceptable," OM president Pablo Longoria said.

"This is something that cannot happen in football. Even if it happened outside of the stadium, it is unacceptable. I am angry and appalled