OGC Nice supporters will be prohibited from traveling this Tuesday, January 14 to Bastia for the round of 16 of the French Football Cup, according to a decree from the Ministry of the Interior published this Saturday, January 11 in the Official Journal. A look back at the notable episodes in the rivalry between these two clubs.
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The youngest supporters remember Bastia goalkeeper Jean-Louis Leca brandishing the Corsican flag on the pitch of the Allianz Riviera after winning this match which is nicknamed the “Derby of the Mediterranean”, it was in 2014.
The pitch was then invaded by dozens of people who physically attacked some of the Bastia players. Already at that time, there was no travel authorized by the authorities.
In 2004, some Bastia supporters ambushed Nice supporters during what was the last authorized trip to the Furiani stadium, as shown in this amateur video from the time.
The buses transporting the people of Nice had suffered a lot of damage caused by projectile jets.
It was a violent response to another agitated trip, that of supporters of the Sporting club de Bastia to Nice, also in 2004. The police officers responsible for security at the Ray stadium then charged the Corsican stand and some Nice supporters invaded the pitch. One of them had, during this meeting, stolen a tarpaulin installed by Corsican supporters. A gesture considered as a humiliation in the so-called “ultra” movement as also shown in this video from the time.
There is also this clash during a trip from Bastia to Fréjus in 2011 as part of the national championship. Some Bastia supporters claim to have been provoked by people from Nice when they got off the boat. A restaurant located in the port of Nice is seriously damaged after this new episode of violence.
1992, thousands of Bastiais in Nice
A trip of several thousand Bastais supporters to Nice and who occupy an entire stand of the old Ray stadium.
-Unthinkable today and yet, in 1992, the Corsicans were authorized to travel in large numbers to witness their team’s victory in a Coupe de France match.
Throwing objects and smoke bombs onto the lawn, the CRS intervened to calm the unrest. “5,000 Corsican supporters forced to come out, we had forgotten to search them, a security service overwhelmed by events and a Nice player injured by a firecracker” commented the journalist from FR3 Corse during the summary of the meeting.
An OGC Nice player lying on the lawn of the Ray stadium after the explosion of a firecracker in 1992.
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© France Télévisions
There had also been damage as reported in the magazine So Foot by former Nice player Olivier Echouafni, then a student: “I remember that the Bastia supporters were exceptionally placed in the side stand, a covered stand over 10 or 15 rows, opposite the presidential election. At the end of the meeting, the entire stand was devastated. OGC Nice had to completely change the stand.”
The 1970s represent the beginning of the rivalry between the two clubs, but it is above all this match in 1992 which is remembered.
The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau underlines that the travel of OGC Nice supporters “are very frequently a source of disturbances to public order due to the violent behavior of certain supporters” The Minister of the Interior believes that they “frequently adopt violent behavior, manifested around and within the stadiums, both by brawls between supporters and by violence against the police.”
It is added in this press release that “the relations between the supporters of SC Bastia and OGC Nice have been marked by a strong rivalry for several years” and that “this rivalry remains alive“.
As for the two Corsican teams, their relations are “imprints of animosity” et “resulting in serious clashes requiring the intervention of the police“, according to the Interior which considers that there is “a real and serious risk of clashes between supporters of the two clubs“.
The meeting will take place on Tuesday January 14 at 8:45 p.m. with the Furiani stadium and the stands partly closed due to work and disciplinary sanctions imposed this season in League 2.
