Marseille (AFP) – Marseille’s French Ligue 1 match against Lille was halted on Friday night when a firework exploded on the touchline in the 57th minute just inches away from two players.
The game started with a 10-minute stay-away strike. It was then stopped in the second half after a firework, thrown from the crowd, blew up at the feet of two Marseille players Kevin Strootman and Jordan Amavi.
Referee Amaury Delerue pointed to the player tunnel and the match officials and the visiting Lille team left the field. After kicking the ball around under the gaze of their fans, the Marseille players followed suit.
Following a 31-minute delay, the match was set to resume.
Alain Marseille, one of the league’s refereeing administrators, emerged from the match officials’ changing room to tell French television: “If the safety of the players could not be guarantee…that’s the end of the match.”
The fans stayed hoping that the match would resume and their team turn around a game in which they were again losing. Second-place Lille led 1-0, after Nicolas Pepe scored with a penalty just before half time.
Marseille have won only once since late November. In that time they have been eliminated from three cups and dropped to seventh in the league.
Frustrated fans called a strike for the first 10 minutes of Friday’s game. When the match kicked off swathes of the stands behind the goals at the normally vibrant Velodrome were empty except for banners hung by fan groups.
Most were aimed at owner Frank McCourt and president Jacques-Henri Eyraud. Others picked out coach Rudi Garcia.
At the north end, one banner, signed by ‘Marseille Trop Puissance’, said: “90 minutes of silence for a leadership that wants to kill its own supporters.”
Opposite, the ‘Winners’ wrote their messages in English, presumably for the benefit of McCourt, as American.
“You get scammed, your credibility takes a hit” read one.
“Fire the coach,” said another.
The messages were not all aimed at the club. One bore the name of Emiliano Sala, the former Nantes striker whose plane disappeared over the Channel.
During a similar protest in 2016, Marseille were three goals down by the time the fans came in.
This time when they took their places, the game was still scoreless.
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