Descent into hell for the MHSC, Sunday evening. The club was humiliated at home in front of its audience by OM who won 5 goals to nil. Montpellier, now bottom of Ligue 1, no longer has a coach: Michel Der Zakarian was dismissed from his duties during this very turbulent evening.
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“I am ashamed for myself, for my club and for the supporters” : It is in these terms that the president of the MHSC summed up this nightmarish evening for the Montpellier footballers.
After the heavy defeat against Marseille, which crushed Montpellier this Sunday, October 20, 2024, by 5 goals to zero in a sold-out Mosson stadium, Laurent Nicollin decided to terminate the functions of Michel Der Zakarian immediately.
Montpellier now finds itself last in the L1 championship: 18th, the place of the red lantern. “I told the players that they blew up their coach and that they had better be better against Toulouse this week next”, declared Laurent Nicollin after the match.
Renowned for his rigor, Michel Der Zakarian has not found the solution to reconstitute a defense worthy of the name within the team, which has conceded at least one goal in the last eight matches.
Appointed coach of Montpellier in February 2023, this sixty-year-old had already held this position between 2017 and 2021.
On the sidelines of this berezina, clashes with the police took place at the gates of the city: no Marseille supporter was able to access the stadium, because two hours before kick-off, the prefect of Hérault decided to deny them access to Montpellier.
The gauge for the Marseillais was set at 450, but there were almost twice as many who boarded buses to come to La Mosson.
By decision of François-Xavier Lauch, they were blocked at a motorway rest area. Furious, OM supporters attacked the police. In a press release broadcast on X, the prefect speaks of “hooded individuals equipped with iron bars and smoke bombs, throwing projectiles against the internal security forces.“
Marseille supporters had to turn around under the control of the CRS and the gendarmes.
This regrettable episode caused the new Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, to react on X, where he mentions “unjustifiable violence which has tarnished the image of football”.
Bruno Retailleau has decided to bring together French football authorities this week to take the necessary measures to restore order in the stadiums and on the sidelines of matches.
