Particularly marked, the president of OGC Nice Jean-Pierre Rivère did not hide his weariness after the incidents that occurred at the Allianz Riviera on the sidelines of the Europa League match between OGC Nice and Cologne (1-1). Disappointed, the boss of the Gym calls for change.
The president of OGC Nice Jean-Pierre Rivère clearly feels the blow. A little more than a year after the incidents of the match against Olympique de Marseille in Ligue 1, the Gym was again concerned by violent skids. This time, the image of soccer has been tarnished by clashes at the Allianz Riviera on the sidelines of the Europa League game between OGC Nice and Cologne (1-1).
Rivère is fed up!
Before the kick-off, finally delayed by 55 minutes, German fans, with Paris Saint-Germain fans members of the “Supras Auteuil”, invaded the presidential stand in order to fight with the Nice ultras, installed in the Populaire Sud. Faced with a catastrophic toll (32 injured and 4 hospitalized, including 1 serious), the president of Nice, Jean-Pierre Rivère, made a real cry from the heart.
“I believe that our Minister of Sports has summarized everything. He is fed up. Frankly, when you live it live, it’s terrible. When the next day you live it a second time with hindsight, it’s even worse because we have images that are terrible. We’ll talk about it, but it’s not possible anymore! Soccer is a sport, a game, we welcome families, children, it is not bearable anymore! Frankly, when I was in front of you last year, I didn’t think I would come back to this subject. Yesterday, I was thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here? My 10-year-old son saw these guys running towards him… It’s not possible anymore,” the Eagles boss said.
A difference between ultras and hooligans
Aware of the problems linked to the structure of the Nice stadium (with the inability to sectorize it), Rivère called for strong measures in relation to stadium bans. “The observation I make is that in terms of security, if the stadium is sectorized, we secure things a little better. If we put three times as many stewards, we can still secure a little more. But at some point, there is an observation: there are ultras and then there are hooligans. These people, the hooligans, have nothing to do in a soccer stadium or around”, he estimated.
“Especially since these are people who, I think, are not at their first case. Unfortunately, I’m talking about some Parisians. We must find a solution so that these people do not approach a stadium. A stadium is not a place to let off steam, it’s not a place to fight, it’s a place to share and to play. We are very very very far from it”, finished Rivère. An evil that is seriously eating away at the soccer world…
