Football: violence at the OM training center, invaded by angry fans
Banner hostile to OM President Jacques Henri-Eyraud, deployed in Marseille on January 30, 2021. NICOLAS TUCAT AFP
Text by: Nicolas Bamba Follow
4 min
A few hours before the Ligue 1 match between Olympique de Marseille and Stade Rennais, hundreds of Marseille fans demonstrated in front of the Commanderie, the training center of the Marseille club.
Unhappy with the results and the sports policy, they shouted their anger, and some managed to enter the premises, causing some damage.
25 people were arrested.
The match against Rennes has been postponed by the League.
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Four consecutive defeats, the podium that moves away in Ligue 1, disappointing results ... and an increasingly pronounced fracture between the supporters and their club.
This 2020-2021 season is proving difficult for Olympique de Marseille on many levels.
The fans, scalded by the Champions League campaign (elimination in the first round, one victory for five defeats), by the proposed game, by the latest results, by the bankruptcy of certain executives and by the sports policy displayed by the leaders, have already expressed their exasperation in recent weeks.
This Saturday, the anger of some of them manifested itself more violently.
Jacques-Henri Eyraud, the target of the anger of the fans
At the beginning of the afternoon, several hundred supporters led a coup at the Robert Louis-Dreyfus training center, also called La Commanderie.
Their demonstration began around the place with smoke, firecrackers and banners hostile to management, in particular Jacques-Henri Eyraud, the president of OM.
The latter is particularly criticized by a large part of Marseille fans.
In addition to certain strategic choices that have not been unanimous in recent seasons, Jacques-Henri Eyraud angered many supporters in December because of his words during a conference on management.
The leader declared in particular: “
I have always liked OM but I also try to detach myself from what a victory or a defeat means.
(...) When I arrived at OM, I was struck to see that 99% of the club's employees were from Marseille.
It is a danger and it is a risk.
"
In response to these words and to the difficulties encountered by their team, the supporters deployed banners around La Commanderie and in several places in Marseille.
“
JHE: No Marseillais at OM?
Get out of here
”,“
JHE, Marseille vomit you
”,“
The Parisians, get out of here
”,“
Direction, c'est la fin
”...
Violence in La Commanderie, the League postpones the Marseille-Rennes match
The situation around the training center eventually escalated.
Several demonstrators managed to enter the premises and committed damage.
The newspaper
L'Équipe
mentions broken equipment, the suitcase of coach André Villas-Boas open and the stoned bus.
A player was also allegedly taken to task.
On Twitter, the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters communicated: “
300 OM supporters violently attacked the police officers present to secure La Commanderie.
She added that 25 people were arrested and seven police officers were injured during these events.
It was around 4 p.m. that calm returned to La Commanderie.
Faced with these incidents and this explosive context, the Professional Football League decided that the match between Marseille and Rennes, scheduled for 9 p.m. at the Stade Vélodrome behind closed doors (due to the Covid-19 pandemic), should be postponed to a later date.
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