Football: attacked, a referee loses consciousness after a match of Departmental 3 in the Vosges

Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: ANP MAG / ANP via AFP 23:01 p.m., June 07, 2023

The referee of an amateur football match in Gerardmer (Vosges) was assaulted by a player on Sunday and, having lost consciousness, was taken to the nearest hospital, AFP learned from the club of the player involved and the gendarmerie of Epinal Wednesday. The match opposed, Sunday at midday, Gérardmer to Dommartin-lès-Remiremont, in Departmental 3 (11th division).

At the end of the match, after a tense encounter, a Gérardmer player and the referee "went head-to-head, the referee fell and (the player) shot him into the ground (...) He kicked him in the head," according to testimonies collected by the club's president, Fabrice Defranoux, who did not attend the meeting.

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"Slight loss of consciousness"

The referee, targeted by "a head shot" then, once on the ground, by "a kick", suffered a "slight loss of consciousness", said the gendarmerie of Epinal, joined by AFP. The referee "did not really know where he lived and was transported to the hospital of Remiremont (30 km) to scan," explained Fabrice Defranoux, which was confirmed by the gendarmerie. "An investigation is being conducted by the Gérardmer brigade. (...) The author, born in 2002, is identified and summoned," the gendarmerie added.

"I stopped all activities (of the club) until the end of the championship. On an act like that, we can not be indifferent, "assured Fabrice Defranoux to AFP. "There is a problem with the referees, it is always the men to be shot, as much by the public as by the players," he lamented. "When you see the insults they take, it should come as no surprise that there are no more."