Lyon request French league discard result of Saint-Etienne match

Lyon have lodged an appeal with the competitions organisation committee (COC) of the French football league (LFP) requesting the result of their derby defeat at Saint-Etienne not be recorded pending the decision of the disciplinary committee, sources close to the club said on Friday.

According to the sources, Lyon consider their chances of securing a replay to be highly unlikely, but hope the appeal will “raise awareness” among the committee and the refereeing body.

The appeal comes ahead of Lyon’s last four Ligue 1 matches, with the club fighting for a Champions League spot for next season.

The sources said the club has made this decision in the hope to ensure these matches be referred as fairly as possible.

Lyon lost 2-1 at the home of fierce historic rivals Saint-Etienne on Sunday at the end of a tumultuous match which was interrupted for almost 45 minutes when a coin was thrown at an assistant referee. 

The LFP’s disciplinary committee opened an investigation into the incident on Wednesday with a decision expected to be taken in early May.

According to the club and post-match statements by technical director Matthieu Louis-Jean, coins were also thrown at Lyon players during their pre-match warm-up. 

In the club’s appeal to the COC, Lyon claimed that during the crisis meeting organised to decide whether or not to resume the match they had said “that the safety of their players was not guaranteed”.

Furthermore, the seven-time French champions flagged up another incident during the match — the decision to revoke a red card given to Saint-Etienne’s match winner Lucas Stassin.

The Belgian was shown a straight red for a tackle which caused Lyon midfielder Corentin Tolisso to leave the field on a stretcher, but the punishment was then downgraded to a booking after a VAR review. 

Stassin later scored his second goal of the match to give the hosts victory.

France’s refereeing body afterwards admitted an error of judgement and said the red card “should not have been overruled”.

Lyon also claim the LFP and local authorities had warned at the pre-match meeting the encounter would not go ahead if banners reading “death to Lyon” were displayed in the stadium.

According to sources close to the club, Lyon claim such banners were indeed present at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard on Sunday.