The toll of this aggression is heavy for the football club of Neuvillette-Jamin.
On Saturday, five players from this Reims team, aged 15 to 16, were attacked by dozens of individuals, during a meeting within the CREPS of Reims, which hosts sports activities, reports France Bleu.
Three of them were hospitalized.
According to the local daily Union, one suffers from "multiple fractures to the arms", another from "ligament injuries on a shoulder and a wrist" and had to undergo a brain scan.
Other players also present "bruises".
This Monday, the police launched a call for witnesses to find the 30 to 40 individuals whose motivations are still unknown, who attacked the players shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, while the Neuvillette-Jamin club faced behind closed doors the Taissy team.
Baseball sticks, axes and bats
According to the radio, some were equipped with sticks, others with athletic hurdles.
The Union also mentions axes and baseball bats and specifies that the footballers concerned were unable to take refuge in the locker rooms, closed due to Covid-19 and had to suddenly flee from the field.
"We saw the individuals gather little by little, then they broke down a fence and rushed on us", reported to the newspaper an educator who witnessed the scene.
“Some hid in gardens, others in houses […], he continues.
But the violent group was chasing us.
Some had a car and they chased one of our kids.
They tried to run over it several times!
They ended up grabbing two players and beating them up.
They kept hitting them.
It was terrifying.
"
Eight people arrested
Eight of them - two adults and six minors - were arrested in the process, some of them fleeing into surrounding fields, but the others were not found.
In a statement, the club whose players were targeted said deplore "the scenes of violence directed against its licensees" and saddened that "football is thus the target of such acts".
In particular, the police are trying to understand what may have happened before the attack and invite any witnesses to make themselves known at 03.26.61.44.16.
