Olympique de Marseille’s Dimitri Payet goes down after being hit by a water bottle thrown by a fan at the Groupama Stadium, Lyon November 21, 2021. — Reuters pic
PARIS, Dec 16 — Lyon club president Jean-Michel Aulas has been banned for 10 matches for his behaviour during the curtailed match against Marseille, the French League (LFP) said Wednesday.
For five of those games the combative Aulas, who has owned Lyon since 1987, is banned from the bench, the referee’s changing room and all official functions
The game in Lyon on November 21, was abandoned after Marseille’s Dimitri Payet was hit on the head by a bottle thrown from the crowd in the fifth minute.
Lyon had already been ordered to play two games behind closed doors and deducted a point.
Aulas had demanded the game resume, seemingly using his position on the French Football Federation to threaten the referee.
“I am unfortunately part of the Executive Committee and it will not stop there,” he said, according to the referee’s report on the incident.
Aulas said remarks were “taken out of context”. — AFP