One hour before the kick-off of the match of this 1st day of the smallest of the three European Football Cups, several hundred hooded supporters in the colors of the Cologne club, out of the more than 8,000 present in the Ray stand, invaded the presidential stand, or Ségurane stand, to go to battle with the Nice supporters, installed them in the popular south stand, noted AFP journalists in the stadium.

According to the prefecture, questioned by AFP, "it was the Germans who charged".

Fans came to blows, sometimes armed with chairs or iron bars torn from the stadium, AFP journalists found in the stadium.

A total of 32 people were injured, including two police officers and a steward, and four hospitalized, according to a latest report from the prefecture around 10:30 p.m.

Among them, a supporter who came from the FC Cologne stand was hospitalized in "absolute emergency" after a fall of more than 5 meters between two levels of the stands.

His vital prognosis was no longer engaged, according to the last point of the prefecture.

"Very alcoholic", this man was in fact a Parisian supporter, specified at 8:00 p.m. the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes, thus confirming several sources who had mentioned to AFP the presence of Parisian supporters in the FC Cologne stand, wearing their colors.

Some would have been spotted by Nice supporters before the meeting.

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At the start of the match, at 7:40 p.m., almost an hour late, the PSG "Supras Auteuil" supporters club took out a banner in the tribune allocated to the Germans, noted a journalist from the AFP.

Amélie Oudéa-Castéra: "Our sport is dirty"

Faced with these incidents, the gates of the stadium had been "temporarily closed, until calm returns" after the intervention of the police, explained the prefecture.

During a crisis meeting at the stadium between representatives of UEFA (Editor's note: the European Football Federation), the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, the public prosecutor and the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, he was jointly decided to postpone the kick-off, originally scheduled for 6:45 p.m.

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After a German-language announcement asking Cologne fans to calm down, Nice captain, Brazilian Dante, took the microphone to speak to the Nice fans: "We all know you had nothing to do with it" , launched Dante.

"I am counting on you and on the organization to be able to play this match. I am counting on you and your support".

The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, deplored that "our sport is dirty", Thursday evening, during an event with sponsors organized in Paris by the Sporsora association.

"It's fed up, it's really fed up that our sport is soiled in this way, that we can no longer say to ourselves that we are going with our kids in a serene and reassuring way in a stadium", regretted the minister.

As of Thursday afternoon, even before arriving at the stadium, the German supporters had degraded Nice monuments and tagged tram stations in Nice.

The town hall of Nice assesses the damage and Mr. Estrosi indicated that he would ask the Cologne club for reimbursement.

"There were hints of confrontation on the part of German supporters outside the stadium," the prefect's chief of staff, Benoît Huber, told AFP.

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At 8:30 p.m., at halftime of the match, no arrest had yet taken place, according to the prefecture.

A year ago, in August 2021, the Mediterranean derby between Nice and Marseille in Ligue 1 had degenerated and the meeting had never ended.

Nice supporters had invaded the field and had transformed it into a ring after Dimitri Payet, the playmaker of OM, had sent yet another plastic bottle aimed at him towards the stand.

© 2022 AFP