the essential
A week after its success on the RC Lens field, the TFC returns to the Stadium to challenge the Strasbourg team. A meeting refereed by a man who does not bring back good memories at the purple club.
There is no doubt that the president of the Toulouse Football Club would prefer not to remember it, recalling that it belongs to the past, but Damien Comolli must necessarily have thought about it when he saw the refereeing body appointed to direct the match of the 17th day between Toulouse and Strasbourg, this afternoon at the Stadium (5:15 p.m.). Indeed, Benoît Bastien will be the central referee of this match.
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The 41-year-old has a special history with the purple club, he who was on the whistle on May 30, 2021 on the lawn of the Beaujoire de Nantes, while the Toulouse residents were trying to get their ticket for a return to Ligue 1 A hand fault from Charles Traoré, not whistled by the referee, dampened the hopes of the TFC and provoked the black anger of the staff.
In the bays of the Nantes enclosure, the strong man of the Toulouse club took Benoît Bastien to task to reproach him for his decision. “You stole our climb!” he repeated. “How can you not give it (the penalty, Editor’s note)?! Scandalous, you were scandalous!” added the former sports director of Saint-Étienne, or even Liverpool.
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TFC: six match suspension for president Damien Comolli
“Football does not need leaders who behave in the same way as Mr. Comolli” Pascal Garibian, the DTN of arbitration on France Bleu Occitanie, declared at the time. A few days later, Damien Comolli was sanctioned with a six-match suspension, two of which were suspended. Benoît Bastien went to the Stadium more than a year later, on October 16, 2022 (3-2 victory against Angers), and had also managed Strasbourg-Toulouse on August 27, 2023. There, the Alsatians had taken the best (2-0 victory at Meinau).
