Laurent Prud’homme recalled this Thursday the commitment of Olympique Lyonnais in the fight against racism and hooliganism in football. The General Director of the Rhone club announced stadium bans for members of Mezza Lyon, a group linked to the far-right, condemned for their behavior at the Vélodrome during the canceled match in Marseille in October 2023.
Qualified for the next Europa League after a superb end to the season in Ligue 1, OL are also working hard to pacify their stands. Involved in several incidents throughout the season, in Marseille in October 2023 or recently on the sidelines of the Coupe de France final against PSG, hooligans claiming to be supporters of the Rhone club have put the institution in difficulty. Guest Thursday on the program Complément d’investigation on France 2, Laurent Prud’homme wanted to show firmness. In particular with the members of Mezza Lyon, a group linked to the far-right and at the heart of several incidents.
“I don’t consider them as supporters, I don’t even consider them as ultras,” said the OL CEO regarding these violent spectators. “These are people who use sport, football, to satisfy their passion for violence.
Prud’homme refuses to condemn Nazi salutes “a priori”
The CEO of Olympique Lyonnais recalled the “colossal” work carried out by the Rhone club in order to identify its violent or racist fans and to pacify its stadium. Criticized for his use of the conditional in an interview with the local press, despite the images supposedly showing hooligans performing Nazi salutes, Laurent Prud’homme justified himself: “I am not a judge. Of course I find that unacceptable and I say it, it’s unacceptable, but I’m not a judge.”
Since then, the two supporters in question have been convicted of “introducing or carrying into a sports venue an object inciting hatred or discrimination” at first instance. However, neither was convicted for the Nazi salutes.
The Marseille judicial court favored the acquittal in March for this charge. And this, even if one of the two accused had admitted to having made a Nazi salute “without thinking, by provocation” during the trial while the second had denied it outright.
“We are going to impose a commercial (stadium) ban”
Laurent Prud’homme then explained that the French justice system had since deemed the signs linked to the Mezza Lyon to be illegal and that OL intended to do its best to eradicate the scourge of racism at the Groupama Stadium and during the travel of its supporters. To achieve this, the manager of the Rhone club imposed sanctions.
“Once again, they are not supporters”, insisted the Lyon leader again for the show https://twitter.com/Cdenquete/status/1801374281659539850. “The two supporters were sentenced. The ban is a judicial ban on stadiums, so it is a ban worth five years where they are required to report to the police station. As the second one appealed, the judge considered that the appeal was suspensive and therefore it can return.”
Before announcing a strong decision: “Ban them? We are going to do it. We are going to make a commercial (stadium) ban. For us, commercial bans are 18-month bans which can be doubled when there is a repeat offense. The problem is that it is completely ineffective because there is no obligation to check in at the police station and we are unable to check the identity of everyone in the stadiums.”
