Ligue 1 suffers more crowd trouble as rival fans battle over stolen banner | Football

Montpellier’s Stade de la Mosson was unusually packed for the visit of newly promoted local rivals Nîmes on Sunday afternoon but the Tribune Heidelberg, the stand that houses the Montpellier ultra-group Butte Paillade 91, was missing its most prominent totem. A banner that bears the group’s name and usually sits proudly above the lower tier had been stolen. However, with 10 minutes remaining of what had been a ferocious Montpellier display, the missing banner reappeared – but at the other end of the stadium.

Until this week, the Derby du Languedoc had been largely forgotten by anyone outside the region, an area normally more famed for rugby. Although the rivalry has been fierce in the past – something underlined by the 400 police on hand at the game – the two clubs had not met in Ligue 1 for 25 years or in any competition for nearly a decade.

Tensions between the two groups had been simmering. Nîmes fans were attacked by Montpellier supporters in May as they returned from a Ligue 2 trip to Lorient, supposedly a response to Nîmes fans breaking into La Mosson last November. Subsequently, most Nîmes fans were banned from travelling to the game, with the 605 fans sanctioned to attend given a police escort to La Mosson. Fears of violence outside the ground remained, however, after a group of Montpellier fans had chanted “kill them!” at a training session this week.

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