Stadium barrier crash injures 18 Lille fans
LIGUE 1 GAME AT AMIENS SUSPENDED AFTER INCIDENT
ighteen Lille fans were hurt, including three seriously, in Amiens on Saturday when a stadium barrier collapsed in the away section as supporters celebrated a goal in French league match.
The Ligue 1 fixture between Amiens and Lille was suspended in the 16th minute, and later abandoned, after a fence separating fans from the pitch crumbled under their weight as they celebrated a goal by Fode Ballo-Toure.
Several supporters tumbled around 1.5 metres down to the side of the pitch and were crushed by fellow fans before emergency services rushed to the scene to tend to the injured.
Ballo-Toure ran towards the section of visiting fans after scoring the opening goal, prompting a surge that caused the barrier to give way.
Both teams were sent to the changing rooms as the match was halted initially before a French league official later said the game had been called off.
Amiens’ Stade de la Licorne is currently undergoing renovation work, with one stand at the compact arena closed for refurbishment.
The stadium is the smallest of the 20 French Ligue 1 clubs.
Repair work on the roofing is taking place throughout the 2017-18 season, Amiens’ first campaign in the top flight in club history.
“The works are going to start in June and will be done stand by stand, at a rate of one stadium per trimester,” local politician Alain Gest said last May.
Neymar’s dad fires salvo
However, Gest suggested that the upkeep of the stadium has been neglected by local officials.
“It has not been sufficiently maintained by the previous municipalities and posed serious dangers,” he added.
He said a safety audit in 2016 noted that the stadium presented “serious dangers”.
The struggle between Neymar and Edinson Cavani over who should take Paris SaintGermain’s penalties was blown out of all proportion, the Brazilian player’s father said in an interview on French television.
Neymar converted a spotkick impressively in Saturday’s 6-2 win over Bordeaux and was immediately hugged by his Uruguayan teammate.
The spat started two weeks ago in the 2-0 league win over Lyon when centre-forward Cavani insisted on taking a penalty but then went on to miss it.
“The whole thing was exaggerated,” Neymar senior said of the tide of media interest in the dressing room conflict that came to be known in France as ‘Penaltygate’.
“We saw in the game against Bayern Munich that there is no problem at all,” said the player’s father.
Neymar Senior suggested the incident was all part and parcel of his son ‘leaving his comfort zone’ at Barcelona for a world record €222 million transfer fee.