Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, home of French Ligue 1 football club AS Saint-Étienne, has been closed until further notice following crowd disturbances during the weekend match against Paris Saint-Germain.
PSG won the match 4-0, with Kylian Mbappé scoring his team’s final goal in the last minute as fireworks and flares were let off by Saint-Étienne fans in the stand.
France’s Ligue de Football Professional (LFP) has moved quickly to punish Saint-Étienne for their fans’ actions and the stadium has been closed indefinitely.
Saint-Étienne said in a statement that it “deplores” the incidents that occurred during the match. The club added that a reinforced team of security officials was employed for the match. Almost 500 individuals were mobilised in total and Saint-Étienne confirmed that several were injured during the disturbances.
The club statement added: “A meeting with the various authorities will soon be organised on the advice of the Loire Prefecture in order to take stock of the correct actions to be carried out.”
Saint-Étienne’s next scheduled home fixture is against Nantes on January 11.
Stade Geoffroy-Guichard has a capacity of 41,000 and has hosted matches during the 1984 and 2016 UEFA European Championships, the 1998 FIFA World Cup and the 2007 Rugby World Cup.
Image: KevFB
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