After Marseille players clashed against home fans and pelted them with objects, the Ligue 1 clash between Nice & Marseille was abandoned at the Allianz Riviera in the second period.
When Dimitri Payet was about to take a corner, Nice fans hurled water bottles at him. After he retorted, there was a large brawl that ensued as some of the fans ran onto the pitch.
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Both teams fled to the tunnel, and play was stopped for more than an hour. Then Jean-Pierre Rivere, Nice president, appealed for calm to his supporters through the sound system. Marseille players returned to their pitch to warm up but not theirs.
Pablo Longoria, president of Marseille, stated that the club decided to end the match against the recommendation by football authorities.
He stated that while the League had decided the match should be continued, he and his team decided to stop it because safety was not assured. This is the second instance of it happening. This has already happened in Montpellier. We decided to keep going after that decision.
"What happened today was unacceptable. It must be a precedent for French football, and that is why we chose to return to Marseille."
Revere partly blamed Payet, his teammate Alvaro Gonzalo for the chaos. They retaliated by throwing bottles at Nice fans. Revere also accused Marseille staff members of hitting some home players.
He said, "It's disappointing the game ended this way."
"Everyone witnessed what happened. Because we all saw it, we can't deny the fact that water bottles were thrown. The reaction of two Marseille players, who retaliated, was what sparked the violence.
"It is regrettable that the Marseille security personnel intervened on ground level and hit our players."
French newspaper L'Equipe reported on Friday that Luan Peres and Matteo Guendouzi, both visiting players, were hurt in fighting.
Nice led 1-0 at the end of the 75th minute. After Marseille had missed several chances in the first half, Kasper Dolberg scored the goal in the 49th minute.
This story used information from Reuters, the Associated Press.
