• If Lens beat Lille for the first time in fifteen years, this is not what we will necessarily remember from the 114th North Derby.

  • The scuffles at half-time between supporters of the two camps clearly spoiled the party and tarnished the image of this derby.

It's true, we would have preferred to tell you about the first (deserved) success of RC Lens for fifteen years in a derby from the North.

We could also have wondered until when Jocelyn Gourvennec will remain coach of Losc in view of the catastrophic start to the season of the French champion.

But what we saw at half-time in the Northern Derby broke everything and doesn't really make us want to talk about sport.

Three weeks after the already serious incidents at Nice-Marseille, six derby spectators ended the match in hospital, injured by half-time clashes between Lille and Lensois supporters.

However, until then everything had gone rather well with a pre-game without overflows with the exception of the intrusion device set up in the visitor park which accidentally gave way and took a Lille supporter to the hospital.

Incidents that started on the side of the Lille parking lot

At the kick-off, the “Lillois Merda” tifo deployed throughout the Marek stand set the tone.

But we thought then that all this would remain a chamber, admittedly in bad taste, between supporters of the two camps.

And then, after 45 exciting minutes in the stands (much less on the pitch), the stupidity exploded.

The players had just returned to the locker rooms when the visitor parking lot made up of 1,200 Lille supporters began to stir just next to a part of the Trannin stand where the Sang et Or supporters were installed. It is difficult to say who started the games. hostilities because, according to the camp from which one is placed, each one gives his version of the facts.

Huge anything in Lens where the Racing supporters invade the field to go to fight with the supporters of #Losc HONTEUX pic.twitter.com/uAa8p1Nvrm

- François Launay (@francoislaunay) September 18, 2021

"It is the image of the region that is affected by what happened"

“The people of Lille broke the seats and the iron bars.

The whole thing was massively swung on the platform next door.

We had three injuries on the Lensois side, including one quite seriously, ”explains a Lensois supporter.

“I mostly heard insults and a teenager from our area received an object.

Fortunately there were the gates and the security (to protect us ", loose for his part a Lille supporter present in the park." A few gestures set fire to the powder with a reaction which is damaging ", deplores for his part Arnaud Pouille, General Manager of Racing.

Problem, when the supporters of the Marek stand, where the kop is located, saw that it was heating up, a hundred did not hesitate to invade the lawn to rush towards the yard and try to do battle.

Repelled by the police, they could not achieve their goal under the eyes of a stadium stunned by so much stupidity.

"It is the image of the region that is affected by what has happened", lamented Arnaud Pouille, director general of RC Lens.

The players did not see anything

Back in the locker room before things got out of hand, the players of both teams saw nothing.

“We were told that there had been a few incidents between supporters and that the police intervened.

We went to the gym to get ready, ”says Jean-Louis Leca, the Lensois goalkeeper.

During this time, a crisis unit is set up between the delegates of the League, the sub-prefect and the leaders of the two clubs.

The question of the continuation of the match then arises in view of the events.

But very quickly, the maintenance of the meeting is privileged.

“When the conditions for preserving the safety of the players in the game were met, we were able to resume,” explains Arnaud Pouille.

RC Lens fears sanctions

After a forty-minute hiatus, the game resumed with CRS called in as reinforcements to stand in front of the Trannin and Marek stands. The second period went smoothly, Lens won in a boosted Bollaert but the heart was not really there. If the players and the Lensois staff, who did not attend the clashes, fully savored this derby, the soup with the grimace was rather de rigueur among the leaders of the club.

After these incidents, Arnaud Pouille knows that RC Lens risks being sanctioned while the club receives Strasbourg Wednesday on behalf of the 7th day of Ligue 1. “The delegates are writing their report.

The whole field of possibilities is open ”.

Behind closed doors, loss of points, fines, Lens risks big in a story which has already led to two arrests: a Lille supporter and a Lensois supporter accused of having thrown seats on the CRS.

In these cases, stupidity does not choose its camp.

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VIDEO RC Lens-Losc: Exclusive images of the tensions between supporters at half-time

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