Reaction

Jean-Pierre Rivère: ‘It's disappointing’

The match was stopped in the 75th minute after Dolberg scored in the 48th minute. After a long stoppage, the authorities decided to resume the match. But it was not to be. The Marseille players did not return to the pitch, as the referee had to note, before sending the Aiglons back to the dressing room, and all the spectators left in the stadium back home.

"It's disappointing that the match ended like that," said Jean-Pierre Rivère to the press.

He then added: "Everyone saw what happened. Water bottles were thrown, we can't dispute that. I think that unfortunately what set things off was the two Marseille players reactions, who threw bottles at our supporters' stand. After that, things went from bad to worse. I think that the Marseille security service should not have intervened on the pitch, and especially not hit our players, because two of our players were hit. But that's not the point.

We had a meeting with the prefect, the DCSP, Pablo Longoria, the referee and me. The referee was hesitant about resuming the match, as he was not sure about the security and the next steps. The Public Security services guaranteed that there were no problems for the rest of the match. They said that in the visitors' stand, there was damage and projectiles were thrown at our supporters. I'm not going to comment. In any case, what is clear is that everyone decided to resume the match. The prefect, the head of the security service. I didn't quite understand the decision of our colleagues from Marseille not to resume the match. Everyone advised them to resume, there were 15 minutes left. I spoke to the supporters to tell them that what they had done in terms of throwing bottles was not acceptable. They assured me twice that there would be no problems. I know very well that the match could have been restarted, everyone was for it. I was convinced that it would go well. Unfortunately, Marseille didn't want to resume. Duly noted."