Crowd trouble forces Lyon to play Champions League game behind closed doors

UEFA has punished the Ligue 1 club for the crowd disturbances that occurred prior to their Europa League tie with CSKA Moscow in March

Lyon’s first home Champions League group-stage game will be played behind closed doors as a result of crowd trouble against CSKA Moscow last season, UEFA has confirmed.

The governing body charged the French club under multiple counts, including throwing of objects, setting off of fireworks, crowd disturbances, racist behaviour and blocking stairways.

As a result, UEFA’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) has fined Lyon €100,000 and determined that the next European game they host must be played without fans in attendance.

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A ban for another home fixture has been deferred for a two-year probationary period.

Lyon were already in the midst of a two-year suspended ban imposed by the CEDB following crowd trouble in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final with Besiktas in 2017.

There were further ugly scenes at the stadium less than a year into that punishment as violent clashes occurred prior to the 3-2 loss to CSKA Moscow in March.

Police claimed up to 150 supporters were involved in the trouble and the club released a statement at the time which criticised those involved.

It read: “Olympique Lyonnais condemns in the strongest terms last night’s attacks outside the Groupama Stadium against the police by a group of individuals hidden under hoods and who are not part of the official groups of supporters of the club.

“These unacceptable actions against police officers are also detrimental to Olympique Lyonnais, which is under the threat of a conditional sanction from UEFA, and they discredit all the groups of supporters of the club who are mostly exemplary.”