Ever since the Malice in the Palace, the NBA has been desperate to avoid another incident involving players and fans that leads to a physical fight. They’ve instituted numerous rules and policies on both sides to try and avoid another disastrous fan vs. player brawl, and while incidents have happened, to this point they’ve been successful.
Still, fans throwing things at players is an issue that continues to persist across sports, and the possibility for that to produce another fan-player brawl is always the great fear when fans cross the line. Soccer has a particular issue with fan behavior, and in France on Sunday we saw what happens when fans push a player to their breaking point.
Marseille was in Nice for a game when Dimitri Payet was struck in the head with a bottle thrown from the stands and started firing the bottles back at the fans, leading to fans storming the pitch and trying to fight with players, as security struggled to separate the two sides.
A real Malice in the Palace type situation at the French Riviera between Marseille and Nice.
Ugly scenes after Dimitri Payet got tagged in the face by stupid, moronic Nice fans. Ugly scenes. pic.twitter.com/uRrKS1Eupr
— The Whole Delivery (@TWDTV1) August 22, 2021
The good news is, security seemed to, mostly, be able to keep fans from overwhelming the players in droves and creating something even more dangerous, but it was a rather terrifying scene as Nice supporters poured onto the field to confront players and staffers. It was dangerous for everyone, as a Marseille staffer knocked one supporter who got too far onto the field out cold.
https://twitter.com/jpaterson97/status/1429540577402576901
The match was suspended and Nice will surely face some sort of penalty in the form of supporter bans or something of the like, but it’s a reminder of just how close we are to this kind of thing happening when fans cross the line.
