Marseilles (AFP)
OM denounced on Saturday evening an "unacceptable attack" and "an unjustifiable outburst of violence" after the intrusion of club supporters into its training center and announced several future complaints.
"Thefts were perpetrated and vehicles were damaged. Five trees were burned with the sole desire to destroy. The damage inside the buildings amounted to several hundred thousand euros," wrote in a statement the Marseille club, whose match against Rennes, initially scheduled for 9 p.m., has been postponed to a later date.
The facts took place in the early afternoon.
Arrived in procession behind a huge banner on which could be read "Cassez Vous" and carrying flags "Dirigeants Dehors", some 300 supporters gathered in front of the gates of the training center of La Commanderie and immediately lit firecrackers, fireworks. fireworks and smoke.
They threw many of them beyond the perimeter walls and three trees planted just at the entrance of the center ended up charred.
Passing through the right side of the site, through fields belonging to a religious community, some of these supporters then entered the grounds of the center "including the building of the professional group", according to OM.
"Despite the intervention of the police, an unjustifiable outbreak of violence endangered the lives of those present on site (players, staff, police, security agents, employees)", writes the club.
"These irresponsible and unacceptable actions must be condemned with the utmost severity. Olympique de Marseille has all the evidence. They were immediately transmitted to investigators. The complaints will be filed in the coming hours to assert the rights of the club against this barbarism ", adds OM.
The police, for their part, announced 25 arrests among supporters, as well as minor injuries to seven police officers and damage to three vehicles of the police.
"What happened this afternoon calls for the greatest severity for these troublemakers who claim to be supporters but destroy facilities and threaten employees and players," wrote club president Jacques-Henri Eyraud in the OM press release.
The captain of the team, Steve Mandanda, for his part considered that a "sports crisis could in no way justify such a surge of violence" and added that the time was "for appeasement".
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