Property damage, reports of injury to Gonzalez and postponement of the match with Rennes: what is known about the attack on the Marseille base

The football weekend in Europe was overshadowed by events in France.

In Marseille, fans of the local football club Olimpic attempted to break into the team's base.

As a result, 25 aggressive fans were detained, and the match of the 22nd round of Ligue 1 with Renn was postponed.

As it became known, the incident occurred at 14:20 local time (16:20 Moscow time).

About 300 fans of "Marseille" gathered at the entrance to the base and tried to break through.

During the riots, property was damaged and several police officers were injured.

It is reported that fans pelted the territory of the Robert-Louis Dreyfus training center with smoke bombs and flares, as a result of which they burned several trees, and wrote a message to the president of the club, Jacques-Henri Ayrault on the facade.

In it, in a rather harsh form, they urged the functionary to leave the team.

“Several hundred people from among the ultras broke into the territory of the training center.

Despite police intervention, the unjustified outbreak of violence endangered the lives of those present (players, employees, members of law enforcement agencies, security personnel).

Thefts were committed, cars were damaged.

Five trees were burned for the sole purpose of destruction.

The damage to the interior of the buildings is estimated at several hundred thousand euros, ”Marseille said in a statement.

As noted in the press service of the police prefecture of the Bouches-du-Rhone department on Twitter, 25 fans of Marseille were detained as a result of the incident.

As for the footballers who were at the base, then, according to the media, only Alvaro Gonzalez was injured - the defender was hit in the back with a fire.

The leadership of Ligue 1 considered that in such an atmosphere it was not possible to hold a championship match and postponed the meeting between Marseille and Rennes.

"In connection with the incidents that occurred this afternoon in the training center" Marseille ", the match against" Rennes "has been postponed to a later date," - said the press service of the French Football Championship.

According to L'Equipe, the incident at the Marseille base was only part of the action against Ayraud.

In the early afternoon, banners appeared all over the city calling for the president of the club to resign.

Moreover, the object of criticism was not only the functionary, but also the entire team management and head coach Andre Villas-Boas.

It is not difficult to understand the dissatisfaction of the fans.

This season, "Marseille" performs extremely poorly.

After 21 rounds, the team occupies only seventh place in the League 1 standings and is 14 points behind the leading Lyon.

At the same time, all the main successes of Boash's wards belong to the first half of the championship.

In 2021, they won only one victory, after which they shared the points with the outsider "Dijon" and suffered three defeats in a row with a total score of 2: 6.

And this is not counting the meeting with Paris-Saint-Germain in the Super Cup final, which also ended not in favor of Olympic (1: 2).

Angle showing how a group of Marseille fans breached the training center moments ago - via @mercat_om.

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- Get French Football News (@GFFN) January 30, 2021

The performance of the team in the Champions League was no less disappointing.

In the 2020/21 season, the Provençals made their way to the group stage of the prestigious Old World tournament for the first time in seven years, but could not even take third place in the group.

Villas-Boash's players lost five matches out of six, and the goal difference was 2:13.

A small consolation was the victory over Olympiacos, which, although it did not help to qualify for the Europa League, ended a losing streak of 13 meetings.

As for Ayrault, the dislike of the club president may be due not only to failures this season.

Initially, many fans were not satisfied with the candidacy of the head due to the fact that he is from Paris.

The situation was only aggravated by not the highest results in recent years.

With the exception of the season interrupted due to coronavirus (2nd place), Marseille have never managed to rise above the fourth line.

The behavior of aggressive fans was commented on by both the head and the Marseille players themselves.

So, Ayro admitted that the team's employees were shocked by the actions of the fans, and called for punishing the violators.

"What happened this evening requires the greatest severity in relation to these troublemakers, who call themselves fans, but destroy the infrastructure and threaten the players and staff of the club," the press service of Marseille quotes Ayrault as saying.

Training center vandalised by Marseille fans who penetrated it earlier this afternoon - 25 arrests made by police, according to RMC.

pic.twitter.com/Y4ir7ZJN2q

- Get French Football News (@GFFN) January 30, 2021

The alleged victim also did not stand aside.

Gonzalez recalled why he made the decision to move from Villarreal to Marseille, and also appreciated the action of the fans.

“I joined Marseille because of its history and the passion that surrounds it.

It is a beautiful city, we all love this club, but what happened today should not happen again, ”said Gonzalez.

The incident involving the fans was also commented on by the captain of the Olympic, Steve Mandanda.

He expressed the opinion that the unsuccessful performances of the collective are not a reason for such actions, calling them unacceptable.

“I have been playing for Marseille for 13 years.

I know everything about this club.

I know what kind of love and how disappointment he can cause.

But today's events sadden me.

It is unacceptable.

The crisis in sports cannot be an excuse for such a wave of violence.

It's time to calm down, ”concluded Mandanda.

It is worth noting that on the same day a similar incident occurred on the basis of another French club.

About 300 fans of Saint-Etienne entered the training session and surrounded the players.

The fans' dissatisfaction was caused by the latest results of the team, in particular, a major defeat in the derby with Lyon (0: 5).

As noted by the French media, the communication between fans and athletes was not tense, and during the negotiations head coach Claude Puel took the floor.

The specialist agreed that the result of the last meeting turned out to be unsatisfactory, but he assured that the players did everything possible to win.

The meeting ended with a chant from fans who called on the athletes to keep their residence in the top division of the French championship.

On the eve of the 22nd round, Saint-Etienne is on the 16th line, and four points separate it from the zone of transitional matches.

Earlier today, St Étienne fans stopped their team's training session to put pressure on them amid a poor run of form - circled the team & half encouragingly half intimidatingly chanted at them.

(Le Progrès) pic.twitter.com/xpmgbqFUsM

- Get French Football News (@GFFN) January 30, 2021