After a year of seeing matches played in empty or reduced-capacity stadiums, it should have been great to see fans back in the stands — particularly in parts of Europe that dealt with actual lockdowns. But with the return of fans, there’s also the return of ugly incidents involving fans.
Sunday’s French Ligue 1 match between Nice and Marseille was suspended after a disturbing scene broke out in the 75th minute. Marseille’s Dimitri Payet had plastic bottles thrown at him while taking corners at Allianz Riviera. At one point, Payet was struck in the face with a bottle, and he responded by throwing the bottle back into the stands.
That only led to more bottle throwing and a Malice-in-the-Palace-type scene as spectators stormed onto the field.
Nice vs Marseilles suspended after Dimitri Payet struck by bottle and fans storm the pitch pic.twitter.com/TwrbC8BjEH
— Project Football (@ProjectFootbalI) August 22, 2021
Security and the Nice players tried to keep fans from fully taking over the pitch, and for the most part, they were able to get the fans off the field quickly. And while no Marseille player entered the stands, one Marseille staffer did manage to get in a hard shove on a fan.
One of the Marseille staff ran on and lumped a Nice fan ffs 🤣 pic.twitter.com/Vq0aq1rN1u
— Pato (@jpaterson97) August 22, 2021
Marseille manager Jorge Sampaoli also needed to be physically restrained.
Jorge Sampaoli is really wanting to throw down and knock someone out.
Marseille and now Nice squads having a real shuffle now. Basile Boli also wanting to uppercut someone.
Just wow. pic.twitter.com/yHcVRs0tIM
— TWDTV (@TWDTV1) August 22, 2021
The match ended up getting stopped with Nice holding a 1-0 lead.
