At La Meinau on Sunday, the Montpellier overflows came more from the bench than from the wings.
As explained by L'Equipe, Laurent Nicollin, the president of MHSC, was indeed expelled for a "rude remark" made to the place of the referee, in the context of the defeat of his team in Strasbourg (2- 0), on the occasion of the 22nd day.
The referee in question was Stéphanie Frappart.
An embarrassing occurrence on the part of Laurent Nicollin, 50, who is also the president of the union of Foot Unis clubs within the League (LFP).
#RCSAMHSC pic.twitter.com/HGrwfnZ9t5
— Out of Context Ligue 1 (@L1NoContext) February 5, 2023
Useful clarification: unlike most Ligue 1 presidents, Laurent, like his late father Louis, historic president of Montpellier, is used to following his team's matches on the bench, alongside the coach. and staff.
For these remarks, the exact nature of which has not filtered out so far, Laurent Nicollin is theoretically liable to a sanction of up to eight suspension matches, in accordance with article 6 of the disciplinary scale of the French Federation. .
However, the Hérault leader not being accustomed to this type of overflow, he may benefit from a form of leniency from the League's disciplinary committee.
The sanction will be communicated at the end of the committee meeting on Wednesday.
Which commission will be determined on the basis of the comments reported to Ms. Frappart.
The Montpellier team had a bad afternoon at La Meinau on Sunday, Strasbourg signing the first victory of the season in their stadium.
And in general, the MHSC, 15th in the League with only two points ahead of Strasbourg, the first relegation, the first is going through a delicate period.
The red card for Nicollin came in the 32nd minute, just before Strasbourg midfielder Jean-Eudes Aholou was sent off.
Montpellier, which was down 1-0 from the first minute (Habib Diallo's goal), failed to take advantage of its numerical superiority to obtain a result.
On the contrary, Romain Pitau's players conceded a second goal at the end of the first period (doubled from Diallo) and lost an important match against a direct competitor for maintenance.
