OGC Nice: “Mr. Dechepy had a white jersey”… The Gym considers itself (again) the victim of a “pure scandal” in Lyon

At OL Park,

The OGC Nice community manager has some ideas. As last February, this Sunday it released the famous front page of The Team “Nice stolen from Lyon” dating from September 2008, adding the comment “we take the same ones and start again”. Because if the final gap of this OL-Gym (4-1) is much clearer than the 1-0 of last season at Décines, marred by controversial decisions by Clément Turpin, arbitration once again had a role key in this turning point for the Top 5.

This is the reason why the new sporting director of the Aiglons Florian Maurice, very discreet in the media, quickly appeared in the interview area. The former Lyon striker/recruitment manager did not try to hide his “annoyance”. “I believe that there are situations which were very, very poorly judged by the referee and by the VAR,” he pointed out. I don't usually talk about this in front of the press but I think that this evening it crossed the line. » Here are three facts of the game to which Florian Maurice referred, while OGC Nice (now 6th) concludes a tough week, after the slap against Glasgow Rangers in the Europa League (1-4).

• 7th: Guessand sees his goal canceled

At 1-0, Evann Guessand converted a center from Mohamed-Ali Cho to equalize. Bastien Dechepy validates the goal but it is called by the VAR referees. The video refereeing actually went back very far to the start of the action, targeting a “small mistake by Rosario” (dixit Florian Maurice)/“a very slight obstruction” (for Franck Haise) on Nicolas Tagliafico. Upon seeing the images, Mr. Dechepy reversed his decision to cancel the goal.

• 41st: Lacazette scores a double after pushing Nandjou

At real speed, the exchange between Saïd Benrahma and Alexandre Lacazette, author of the second of his three goals of the evening (2-1), did not seem to suffer from any possible dispute. But Florian Maurice slipped past us in the mixed zone: “You will look, I think there is a slight push on one of our players before Lacazette takes it back with his left foot”. Indeed, at the sight of the slow motion, the man with 151 pawns in Ligue 1 maliciously gets rid of the marking of the young Yaël Nandjou by pushing him in the back. But neither Bastien Dechepy nor the VAR referees noted this “light” but punishable gesture.

• 48th: Caleta-Car balances Guessand in the area

Here is the action which logically caused the whole of OGC Nice to be pulled apart, at 3-1 for OL. On a seemingly innocuous cross as soon as the second half resumed, Evann Guessand managed to control the ball before being grabbed all over by Duje Caleta-Car. But despite the crude intervention with the Croatian defender's arms, Bastien Dechepy does not flinch… unlike VAR. But as this rarely happens, the referee does not reverse his decision after consulting the images supposed to indicate “a manifest error”. This was the case here, but not for the referee of this OL-OGC Nice.

“What are we waiting for, for him to slit his throat? »

If Florian Maurice did not at all return to the penalty stupidly conceded on a hand of the unfortunate Yaël Nandjou (4-1, 69th), he distinguished himself by an exit that could not be sharper on DAZN about this action between Guessand and Caleta-Car, who should have quickly offered OGC Nice a 3-2 ball capable of changing the course of the second half.

« Mr. Dechepy had a white jersey, and not a yellow jersey. How can he not whistle a penalty on Evann Guessand? It's a scandal what he did this evening. What are we waiting for, for him to slit his throat, to take him by the neck? The fault is there, even down there he steps on his foot. But what does Mr. Dechepy do? Explain to me what it does. We never have an explanation. The match is over, and I'm going to get suspended by the League because I'm talking about the refereeing and the fact that it was not good at all tonight. »

Before adding a little layer in the interview area: “When we don't call a penalty for Evann Guessand in the second half and we blame Rosario for our equalizer, I find that quite simply scandalous. I can't imagine that after seeing the footage he would say there was no penalty. For me it’s a pure scandal, there was a complete hiccup this evening in terms of refereeing.” If OGC Nice took care not to send any players to the mixed zone after its new evening of refereeing controversy in Lyon, Franck Haise had difficulty controlling his nerves, both on the pitch and in front of the microphones.

Our file on OGC Nice

After describing a “triple fault, like a judo hold” by Caleta-Car, the former Lensois coach railed: “The disputed decisions have always turned in one direction. How is it possible not to call a penalty if Mr. Dechepy had chosen his side? The last time I got angry with him, I received a four-match suspension. » This will give Florian Maurice an idea of ​​his chaotic schedule as sports director between now and Christmas.