Lyon docked point for trouble in abandoned Marseille game

Lyon were docked a point by the disciplinary committee of the French league (LFP) on Wednesday as a punishment after their Ligue 1 game against Marseille last month was abandoned when Dimitri Payet was hit on the head by a bottle.

The match, which was only five minutes old at the time of the incident at Lyon’s Groupama Stadium, will be replayed from the start behind closed doors at a date still to be determined, the LFP said.

Lyon, who are 12th in Ligue 1, were ordered to play two home games behind closed doors but they have already hosted Reims in an empty stadium, losing that match 2-1 last week.

Marseille captain Payet was hit by a full bottle of water thrown from the Lyon support as he went to take a corner in the game on November 21.

The Lyon fan responsible, a 32-year-old man, was arrested and handed a six-month suspended prison sentence while also being banned from Lyon’s stadium for five years.

“Any act of violence against a player, especially a major player, invites a points deduction as a punishment,” said the disciplinary committee’s president, Sebastien Deneux, in a press conference.

“We took into consideration Lyon’s actions immediately after the incidents, which allowed the perpetrator to be identified and punished.”

It was just the latest violent incident to scar a Ligue 1 game this season.

Former France international Payet, 34, was also hit by a bottle during a game at Nice in August. 

Nice were docked a point after the incidents against Marseille, while that game was later replayed behind closed doors at a neutral venue.

On Wednesday Marseille were separately fined 10,000 euros ($11,349) for “discriminatory comments” aimed at the South Korean player Suk Hyun-jun of Troyes in a game on November 28.

That was after comments were picked up by the microphones of broadcaster Amazon Prime during the match, played behind closed doors as a punishment for incidents in Marseille’s draw with Paris Saint-Germain earlier this season.

Troyes later alleged that their player had been the victim of “racist abuse”, leading Marseille president Pablo Longoria to publicly apologise.