Marseilles (AFP)

The tension had been mounting for weeks around OM and it overflowed on Saturday with serious incidents at the La Commanderie training center, stormed by nearly 300 supporters, which resulted in the postponement of the match initially scheduled for 9 p.m. facing Rennes.

The facts took place in the early afternoon.

Arrived in procession behind a huge banner on which one could read "Cassez Vous" and carrying "Dirigeants Dehors" flags, they gathered in front of the gates of La Commanderie and immediately lit firecrackers, fireworks and smoke.

They threw many of them beyond the perimeter walls and three trees planted just outside the entrance to the training center ended up charred.

Passing through the right side of the site, through fields belonging to a religious community, some of these supporters then approached the buildings.

There, according to several media, they would have thrown stones at the players' bus.

Some of the latter were there and allegedly witnessed the incidents.

According to Le Parisien and L'Equipe, the Spanish defender of the club Alvaro Gonzalez was even hit by a projectile.

OM, interviewed by AFP, had not confirmed this information in the early evening.

According to the police headquarters, interviewed by AFP, it was the intervention of police officers sent to reinforce that made it possible to "put an end to the degradations".

The police also announced 25 arrests among supporters, as well as minor injuries to seven police officers and damage to three vehicles of the police.

- Dozens of banners -

In the middle of the afternoon, calm returned to La Commanderie, installed in the middle of a tortuous and narrow crossing of the 11th arrondissement, in the east of Marseille.

Only countless pieces of firecracker, a few graffiti against the club management and the three burnt cypress trees testified to the intensity of the coup by Olympian supporters.

The seriousness of the facts still pushed OM to request the postponement of the match scheduled for 9 p.m. against Rennes.

The request was accepted by the LFP, which simply announced that the game would be played "at a later date".

"Following the intolerable incidents which occurred at the OM training center this afternoon, Stade Rennais FC takes note of the decision of the Professional Football League to postpone tonight's match scheduled for 9:00 p.m. at the Vélodrome stadium", for his part let the Breton club know on Twitter.

The protest movement had in fact started in the morning, with a massive deployment throughout the city of banners opposing the leadership of the OM, and in particular its president Jacques-Henri Eyraud.

- Soon the PSG -

"Follow AVB, break you all", "The Parisians, break", "Give us back OM", "The Olympians hate you" or "Direction, c'est la fin", could we read in particular on these banners installed on motorway bridges, roundabouts or even on the Corniche which overlooks the Mediterranean.

Several of these messages were aimed directly at President Eyraud, very unpopular among OM supporters, particularly upset against him after an intervention in a conference on management during which he had mentioned the "danger" of having too many Marseillais or OM supporters within the club.

"JHE: No Marseillais at OM? Get out of here", could we read on a banner unfurled above a fast lane, and "JHE, Marseille you vomit" on another, installed round- Prado point, a few meters from the Velodrome stadium.

For several weeks, also faced with the deterioration of the team's results, only seventh in Ligue 1 (now with two games late) and pitifully eliminated from the Champions League, the dispute had taken a recurring turn with rallies in front of the Velodrome before each home game.

On Saturday, the intensity of the anger rose several notches.

And the coming week promises to be turbulent again.

Because the next match scheduled at the Vélodrome, Sunday, February 7, is the shock against the sworn enemy, Paris SG.

© 2021 AFP