The Le Havre team bus was left with a damaged windscreen as it tried to make it way to the ground. AFP/PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA
The French second-division playoff between Ajaccio and Le Havre that was postponed after fans of the Corsican club attacked the visitors’ team bus has been rescheduled for Sunday.
Ajaccio and Normandy-based Le Havre are fighting for promotion to Ligue 1, but Friday’s fixture in Ajaccio was called off after fans threw missiles at Le Havre’s bus and impeded it as it tried to near the stadium entrance.
The French Professional League (LFP) said Saturday that the match had been rearranged for 1700 GMT on Sunday following security guarantees from local authorities.
One policeman suffered “light injuries” on Friday after a flare was thrown, according to regional security official Xavier Delarue.
According to an AFP photographer witnessing the incidents, the windscreen of the bus suffered damage while an explosion under the bus damaged the steering and the air conditioning.
The drama prompted Ajaccio’s players to emerge and try to convince the Le Havre team to go through with the fixture, although their pleas fell on deaf ears.
“All the players want to do is go home,” Le Havre coach Oswald Tanchot told AFP.
The winner of the fixture will meet the 18th-placed team in Ligue 1, likely to be Toulouse or Troyes, in the first leg of their promotion/relegation playoff, on Wednesday.
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