Like a new provocation, this episode comes the day after an inter-ministerial meeting on violence in stadiums, in which professional football leaders took part.

It had led to several reforms and avenues for reflection: Ligue 1 or Ligue 2 match "definitively interrupted" if a player or the referee is attacked, plastic bottles prohibited, protective nets.

"A rapid, informed and concerted decision" within a maximum of 30 minutes must also be taken concerning the stopping or resumption of the match.

This Friday evening in Charléty, the fate of the match was finally sealed in just over 45 minutes, around 10:50 p.m., when the stadium announcer announced to the public that the match would not resume.

Blame it on the incidents that occurred during the break.

Parisians and Lyonnais had just left each other with a score of 1-1, after the early opening of Gaëtan Laura (8th) and the equalizer for OL by Moussa Dembélé (44th).

While the players were in the locker rooms, smoke bombs were launched around the Lyon parking lot.

They were then picked up by supporters in the adjoining stand, then thrown to various places in this stand before extinguishing.

Two agricultural bomb explosions were also heard.

Fights broke out and crowd movements then took place in the Lyon parking lot and the neighboring stand, leading to the deployment of security forces who came to lend a hand to the stewards.

The stewards and the police are deployed in front of a stand of supporters equipped with smoke bombs during the Paris FC-Lyon match in Charléty, December 17, 2021 BERTRAND GUAY AFP

Spectators from the stand near the incidents then descended on the lawn to get away from the danger.

The previous OL-OM

Back on the field, the referee and the players, who were going to kick off the second period, finally returned to the locker room, taken aback.

To never come out.

The stadium announcer, accompanied by the president of Paris FC, Pierre Ferracci, announced around 10:50 pm "that in agreement with the authorities the meeting would not resume".

Annoyed, the public then began to leave the enclosure calmly.

This is the second meeting definitively stopped for Lyon this season after the one against OM on November 21.

Marseillais Dimitri Payet was hit in the face by a full plastic water bottle thrown from the stands of the OL stadium.

After an announcement to the contrary, the match had finally been definitively stopped about two hours after the interruption.

For this incident, Lyon was penalized with a withdrawal of one point in the standings and will have to replay the match behind closed doors.

OM captain Dimitri Payet hit by a bottle of water launched from a turn of the Olympique Lyonnais at the OL park, November 21, 2021 PHILIPPE DESMAZES AFP / Archives

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas received a five-match suspension for comments made to the referee.

The author of the bottle throwing, he was sentenced to six months suspended prison sentence and a ban on access to the Lyon stadium for five years.

Before these two matches, French football had already experienced other incidents from the start of the season in August.

The evening of Charléty sadly came to be added to this series.

© 2021 AFP