Paris (AFP)

"We did not feel safe," said Marseille captain Steve Mandanda on Monday to explain his team's decision not to return to the field after the incidents in Nice on Sunday night.

"What I said to the delegate (of the match) is that for us players, our safety was no longer there. We found ourselves in danger because we had a lot of our players who have been targeted, affected, "said the goalkeeper in a video posted on the OM website.

The match of the 3rd day of Ligue 1 between Nice and the Olympians was first interrupted in the 75th minute after supporters invaded the pitch following an incident that set fire to the powder: yet another bottle in plastic thrown at Marseille player Dimitri Payet, whom the latter sent back to the stand.

The Niçois were leading 1-0.

After more than an hour and a half of interruption, the meeting was definitively stopped when the referee, Benoît Bastien, put the ball at the corner post and noted the absence of the Marseillais.

"The referees agreed with us to interrupt the match because they felt that the security was not there. The delegate replied that in relation to the discussion with the prefect and the police department, they felt that it was 'was possible. But, as I told them: + You did not experience what we experienced on the ground, + "Mandanda said.

The Marseille captain recalled that projectile jets had already punctuated OM's first league match this season, on August 8 in Montpellier.

After an interruption of ten minutes, the match had finally resumed and Marseille had won 3-2.

"We already found ourselves in Montpellier with Val (Valentin Rongier, Editor's note) who was hit (in the face), then (in Nice) I was often targeted since the start of the match and then it happened on Dim (Dimitri Payet, Editor's note) Then the supporters returning ... It's completely unacceptable, "continued the 36-year-old international goalkeeper.

An investigation was opened by the Nice prosecutor's office and the two teams, convened on Wednesday by the Disciplinary Commission of the Professional Football League (LFP), face sanctions.

© 2021 AFP