A coach of an amateur football club in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) was violently attacked with a knife Thursday night by the father of a player, frustrated that his 11-year-old son is not retained in the group at the start of the school year, report our colleagues from France Bleu.
The scene occurred at the end of a day of detection of young footballers organized by the Marseille club AS Vivaux Sauvagère located in the tenth arrondissement of the Phocaean city. While he was in the parking lot leaning over the trunk of his car, Frédéric, the volunteer coach felt a presence behind him.
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"He pops up behind me, puts a head in the arch, and a butcher knife on the wrist," says the victim. Among the insults and death threats that fuse, Frédéric manages to hear: "You will take my son!" According to the 44-year-old coach, children were in the parking lot and witnessed the scene. "When I saw their eyes, the fear in their eyes, it cut off my legs... I was shocked to think that people are able to do this for football," he said.
He wants to return to the pitch this weekend
The coach finally escapes with a simple gash on his arm. He filed a complaint but the incident did not disgust him with amateur football, his "breath of fresh air", a "pure happiness". The forty-year-old even wants to return to the field this weekend to accompany his students. "It made me want to be with them even more," he says.
Assaults are not uncommon in amateur and professional football. A 15-year-old Berlin teenager died on June 1 from injuries after a fight with a young French footballer from Metz during an international tournament held in Frankfurt. In March 2022, a District referee was beaten during an amateur match between FC Melun (Seine-et-Marne) and Entente Bagneaux-Nemours.
