The U20 Hope League match between Cergy and Grenoble, this Sunday at the Aren’Ice, was the scene of a gesture which has no place in sport. At the end of an eventful meeting, won on penalties (4-3) by the Ile-de-France residents, a fight broke out on the ice between young people from Grenoble and Cergypontains.
After the referees separated the players involved and the two teams left the ice, a Jokers player was filmed by France.tv hockey cameras returning to the ice.
The major referee then comes towards him and seems to tell him to leave the ice but the player then physically attacks the official. The referee finally managed to control the player with the help of his colleagues and two other Cergypontain hockey players including the goalkeeper.
Already four attacks this season
This is not the first time this season that a referee has been attacked during a hockey game. Last October, our colleagues from L’Equipe reported that two young referees had been manhandled by a coach during an U13 match while in Division 1, a linesman had been hit by a player. On October 25, during the 12th day of the Magnus League, the meeting between Bordeaux and Angers was also marked by a violent altercation between two Dukes players and an official. The two hockey players received 7 and 9 game suspensions respectively.
In the process, the Association of French Referees (AAHG) denounced the “lightness of the sanction” in a press release which was “surprised” by the French Ice Hockey Federation, recalling the independence of the Commission for Infringements of rules of play (CIRJ) responsible for ruling. Since October 23, 2006, the law provides that “referees are considered to be responsible for a public service mission and the violence and attacks to which they are subject may result in the filing of a criminal complaint and be sentenced to a maximum penalty ranging from 3 to 5 years of imprisonment,” the AAHG underlined on this occasion.
Belgium
