For many weeks, he was absent subscribers while the incidents from the stands multiplied on the stadiums of Ligue 1. It is an understatement to say that we expected a reaction from Vincent Labrune, the president of the LFP, after the jet bottle on Dimitri Payet Sunday evening during Lyon-Marseille and especially the incredible consequences against a background of resumption or not of the match and contradictory statements between the League and the prefecture of the Rhône.
"I am shocked and furious," said the former president of OM in an interview with the Team.
And not just by the imbecility of certain pseudo-supporters.
“I am shocked that it takes two hours to make a decision that is obvious and that should have been taken in two minutes, he says.
Because it is obvious that when an actor is touched, the match cannot resume (…) The match must be interrupted.
Period.
"
The images of the jet on Payet are here!
IT IS SHAMEFUL !!
#OLOM pic.twitter.com/cS0hmOAV2l
- Champ1OM (@ champ1om) November 21, 2021
In its press release on Sunday evening, the LFP regretted the will of the Prefect of the Rhône to want to resume the meeting, stopped after five short minutes of play. “We have never sanctioned these acts of violence as harshly as this season. But we are caught up by a principle of reality because our arsenal is reduced. It was not until yesterday's incidents (Editor's note: Sunday) that the meeting with the ministers, which we have been calling for since August, is finally organized, in this case Place Beauvau (Ministry of the Interior) on Tuesday morning . It is extremely urgent to get together all together. "
Since the start of the season, the LFP has been accused at best of incompetence, at worst of laxity. Or vice versa. Labrune no longer wants this “punching bag” position. "We can see that the" tripartite "organization system (clubs / state / LFP) that currently prevails is not functioning optimally, he explains. We have, on the one hand, clubs which are full of goodwill but which are unable to clean up their most violent supporters. And on the other hand, public authorities which are - and rightly so - the final decision-makers in terms of public order but which do not assume this situation. And at the end of the chain, the LFP, whose only power is to be the sports "judge" (...) We have neither the power of police and justice, nor that of individually sanctioning troublemakers. ,nor even that of imposing the non-resumption of a meeting when we consider that it makes no sense… ”
"England managed to get out of this several decades ago"
Vincent Labrune
The businessman calls for a major national consultation on the theme of violence in the stadiums and a general awareness to "tackle the problem head-on."
Having himself presided over the destinies of OM, he refuses to overwhelm these excessively partisan club presidents like Jean-Michel Aulas on Sunday or the Nice Jean-Pierre Rivière during the Nice-Marseille incidents.
“RC Lens has shown great courage, great speed and severity in its decision-making following the incidents facing the LOSC, he prefers to praise. They identified more than forty of their supporters whom they immediately banned from the stadium. It is through this type of behavior that we will be able to eradicate this scourge. It is not easy, but we no longer have a choice. England managed to pull it off decades ago. We are not there yet, so we must be able to get by… ”
For him, French football is the image of post-health crisis society.
No more no less.
But he must set an example “and definitively eradicate this urban violence that has spread in our stadiums.
Whatever the cost, we must succeed.
It is a question of survival for our sport.
This time, time is running out.
Truly.
