Overflows during Angers-OM: two-month to one-year suspended prison sentences required against five supporters

The correctional court will render its decision on June 8 concerning these incidents which did not cause any injuries.

Aged between 22 and 35, these supporters had been indicted in particular for unauthorized entry into a sports competition with the intention of disturbing it, a specific breach of the sports code.

Three of them are also indicted for violence committed in a meeting in a sports arena.

The incidents occurred after the match (0-0), shortly before 11:00 p.m., when the players had already returned to the locker room and the stands were beginning to empty.

According to the account given to the hearing, confirmed by a video, firecrackers burst on the side of the Marseille supporters who, overflowing the stewards, entered the field and headed towards their Angevin counterparts.

"Clearly, the Marseillais wanted to come to the confrontation", summed up the president of the court, Catherine Ménardais.

"Certainly, there was an attack from the Marseillais, and a response from the Angevins", commented the public prosecutor, Marie Le Cornec.

Hence the reaction of the five defendants, one evoking "a case of self-defense", another explaining that he "wanted to serve as a security cordon (...) I did not go to the confrontation but it was necessary be a little virulent to repel them".

"The stewards were overwhelmed, there were no police, I did not see any other solutions", explained a third, claiming to have wanted to "protect" the supporters of his group, for the most part "young people, minors".

Four of them have a job and the youngest is a student.

All five belong to groups of Angevin supporters and have supported the club for several years.

A security member arrests a supporter in front of the Argentinian coach of Marseille Jorge Sampaoli, after the match of the 7th day of Ligue 1, on September 22, 2021 in Angers JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP / Archives

An investigation is still underway on the Marseille side to determine the supporters in question.

At the beginning of October, the Disciplinary Committee of the Professional Football League had cracked down after these incidents, Marseille notably receiving a suspended one-point withdrawal.

Angers had been sanctioned with two matches behind closed doors for its Coubertin stand, one of which was suspended, and a fine of 20,000 euros.

© 2022 AFP