What happened ?
According to the prefecture, questioned by AFP, “it was the Germans who charged“. The confrontation between supporters armed with chairs or torn iron bars in the stadium was incredibly violent. After a big ten minutes of fights, then the intervention of the police, the calm is little barely returned to the stands. Faced with these incidents, the gates of the stadium were temporarily closed.
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After a German-language announcement asking the Cologne supporters to calm down, Nice captain, Brazilian Dante, took the microphone to speak in front of the Nice supporters: “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 count on you and your supportPostponed at 7:40 p.m., the kick-off was finally given and the match went off without a hitch, with the two teams separating in a draw (1-1).
Violent incidents broke out between Nice and Cologne supporters on Thursday at the Allianz Riviera
Credit: Getty Images
What is the provisional balance sheet?
Violent incidents broke out between Nice and Cologne supporters on Thursday at the Allianz Riviera
Credit: Getty Images
Why were PSG supporters among the attackers?
Spotted by the people of Nice before the match, Parisian supporters slipped into the ranks of FC Cologne fans. At the start of the match, the PSG’s “Supras Auteuil” supporters club took out a banner in the tribune allocated to the Germans. This group has been dissolved for twelve years now, but since 2003 it has maintained friendly relations with the Wilde Horde, the ultra historic group of FC Cologne. Thus in 2016, on the occasion of the German Cup meeting between Cologne and Hoffenheim, a banner in the colors of PSG “25 years of Ultra Mentality” was deployed. A message to the address of the Parisian group, which, although dissolved, was then celebrating its 25th anniversary.
How did we come to this?
Testimonies collected by RMC Sport show law enforcement overwhelmed by events. For the police officers present on the spot and questioned by our colleagues, the device “wasn’t big enough” for a match considered at risk.
Did the French public authorities underestimate the threat hovering over this meeting? How were the Cologne supporters able to join the South Brigade without being prevented from doing so by the police? These are some of the questions that will have to be answered in the coming days to establish the responsibilities of a very sad evening.
Why did the match still go ahead?
Faced with the nightmarish pre-match, Jean-Pierre Rivère wanted to postpone the meeting to a later date but UEFA threw all their weight into keeping the match going. The European federation waited for the approval of the public authorities to win the case. Why did the meeting remain in such a powder keg? First, because calm returned quickly after the intervention of the police. But it was Lucien Favre who gave the main reason after the meeting: “We were not sure to play but I think we had to play this game. I was in favor of playing. We were happy to play that match for the simple reason that there is no possible date after“, revealed the coach of the Aiglons. The imminence of the World Cup, planted in the middle of a season, makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to postpone the match. No date is available before the kick-off. Sending the Mondial in November.
What were the reactions?
Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra lamented that “our sport be dirty“after the violent clashes that took place before the kick-off of the meeting.”It’s fed up, it’s really fed up that our sport is dirty in this way, that we can no longer tell ourselves that we are going with our kids in a serene and reassuring way in a stadium“, affirmed the minister within the framework of an event with sponsors organized by Sporsora.
“My stomach is in knots because it’s starting again, Nice-Cologne, with unprecedented violence, shocking images on social networks“, also said Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. “We really need to find the solutions together to get through this, to ensure that this violence which is penetrating more and more into our society stops at least at the door of our stadiums.“, estimated the minister. At the end of the evening, the Minister of Sports specified that she would make a point with the Ministry of the Interior to determine the responsibilities.
For its part, OGC Nice strongly condemned the incidents that occurred within its walls. “The management of OGC Nice intends that all the light be shed on the conditions which made possible this succession of events which damage the spirit of popular celebration that football must convey, so that the necessary measures are taken to supervise its next European meetings“, said the club.
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