Lens close away section for Lille derby after Brugge crowd trouble
Lens will not open the away section for its supporters at Lille on 30 October after pyrotechnic incidents at Club Brugge. The club says the move is intended to punish and prevent further unrest.
Lens will not open the away section for its supporters at Lille’s Stade Pierre-Mauroy for their Ligue 1 derby on Friday, 30 October, after crowd trouble during a Champions League match at Club Brugge. The decision, reported by Fakti.bg, means Lens fans will lose the designated allocation for one of the club’s biggest domestic fixtures.
Fakti.bg reported that Lens informed supporters’ groups of the decision and presented it at an organisational meeting in the Nord department’s prefecture. The measure concerns the forthcoming match; the derby had not been played when the decision was reported.
Why Lens closed the Lille away section
The decision followed Lens’s 21 October Champions League match at Club Brugge. Fakti.bg reported that Lens supporters lit and threw fireworks there, citing the club’s description of ‘dangerous and hostile pyrotechnics’. Lens lost the match 3-0, according to GOAL.
GOAL reported that Lens said disabled supporters and a matchday steward were injured by pyrotechnics at Brugge. In a club statement quoted by GOAL, Lens said a line agreed with supporters’ groups after discussions last season had been crossed: safety, it said, should never be put at risk. The club said it regarded the commitments made in those discussions as broken.
Lens described the Lille decision as having two aims, ‘to punish and to prevent’, according to GOAL. The club acknowledged that it would disappoint supporters but said it did not want to risk further unrest. Stade Pierre-Mauroy has space for 2,000 visiting supporters at Ligue 1 matches, GOAL reported; that figure describes the usual away capacity, rather than the number of fans who held tickets for this derby.
European away trips also affected
The Lille restriction follows a separate UEFA sanction. GOAL reported that European football’s governing body barred Lens from selling away tickets for upcoming Champions League matches at RB Leipzig and Liverpool after pyrotechnics were lit and thrown and damage was caused at Brugge. Lens had warned supporters before that match that a suspended European away-ticket ban was in place.
The Lille decision is the club’s own measure for a domestic match. It adds to the loss of travelling support for the two European fixtures, while leaving Friday’s scheduled derby itself in place. GOAL placed Lille third and Lens seventh in Ligue 1 before the meeting.
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Sources and context
- Lens bans fans from travelling to Lille derbyFakti.bg
- Lens ban their own fans from Lille derby after dangerous behaviour at Club Brugge 'crossed a red line' | Goal.com UKGOAL.com
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.