Dimitri Payet meets with Marseille fans to remind them of the sporting and human cost of projectile throwing | OneFootball

As reported by L’Équipe, Dimitri Payet (34) and Steve Mandanda (36) accompanied Marseille president Pablo Longoria to the monthly meeting between OM fans and club hierarchy yesterday in a bid to remind supporters of the sporting and human consequences of projectile throwing at Ligue 1 games.

Three times Marseille players have been struck by objects thrown from the crowd this season. A coin was thrown at midfielder Valentin Rongier at Montpellier in August before Payet was hit twice by bottles. Firstly at Nice, a mass brawl ensued that resulted in Nice being deducted a point, and at Lyon last month. Both games were abandoned as Marseille refused to play on.

The players’ attendance was Payet’s idea, the 34-year-old having appealed to fans via social media before the visit of PSG to not thrown objects at Paris players. He was unsuccessful on that occasion and criticised fans in the aftermath.

Representatives of OM’s numerous ultra groups agreed with Payet at the meeting but insisted preventing isolated incidents is difficult. Pre-emptive messages will be broadcast at the Velodrome and on the club’s social media accounts ahead of today’s meeting with Brest appealing with fans not to throw projectiles.