A recent series of violent incidents during football matches in France's top-flight Ligue 1, the latest on Sunday when Marseille's Dimitri Payet was hit on the head by a bottle thrown by a Lyon fan, is placing at stake 'the survival of French soccer' said sports minister Roxana Maracineanu.
As the world of sport in France was engulfed in scandal over accusations of the covering up of widespread sexual abuse of young athletes, and notably the rape allegations by a former ice skating champion and three of her fellow skaters against their former coaches, French sports minister Roxana Maracineanu on Thursday appealed to 'to all victims, past and present, to speak up so that we can find the offenders and prosecute them'.