Nice fans direct fury at owners as club falls into Ligue 1 relegation playoff

Nice’s players and staff were attacked by their own fans a few months ago. On Sunday night, their ultras stormed the pitch after their goalless draw at home to Metz and the players had to scamper down the tunnel. It was a perfect snapshot of the scale of Ineos’ failure and the anger it has elicited from the club’s fans.

Nice’s season began with Champions League qualifiers and it could end with relegation to Ligue 2. Their failure to beat Metz on the final day of the season means they will face Saint-Étienne in a two-legged relegation playoff later this month. The timing is a disaster for Inoes, who are looking to cut and run after failing to turn the club into challengers to PSG’s dominance – their stated ambition when they bought Nice for €100m in 2019.

As Nice sought to avoid the relegation playoff, they had to do something that they had failed to do since 29 October: win a league game at home. They could not have asked for better opponents. Metz were already relegated and had won just three league games all season, none of which came under the management of Benoit Tavenot, who was appointed in January. In fact, Tavenot was looking for his first win of the season for any club, having also gone winless in 11 games at Bastia before his departure in October. He would end the season with no wins, nine draws, 18 defeats and two relegations.

It was a simple task but Nice made it look herculean. “Get your arses into gear,” was the chant from the home fans before the match. Even before kick-off, the atmosphere was a curious one, split between anger, celebration and anticipation. “Everyone to Paris,” read one banner, a reference to their Coupe de France final against Lens in the capital on Friday. Another large tifo celebrated the club captain, Dante, who hoped he would be playing his final game at the Allianz Riviera before retiring at the age of 42.

The fans’ anger quickly consumed their other two emotions, just as their two matches against Saint-Étienne in in the relegation playoff will overshadow the Coupe de France final. “It is no longer a priority at all,” according to Nice co-president Jean-Pierre Rivère. The team will travel to the Stade de France with their heads elsewhere, just as Reims did last season, when they lost to PSG in the cup final before losing to Metz in the playoff. Yehvann Diouf, who played in all three of those games for Reims last year before moving to Nice in the summer, will be desperate to avoid history repeating itself.

There have been warning signs for Nice, but few thought it would come to this. Their objectives before the season were vague. A return to Europe, without specifying which competition, was expected but never made explicit. With Ineos focused on Manchester United, the tap has been turned off at Nice. Important players such as Evann Guessand and Marcin Bulka were sold and their replacements were not up to scratch; Kevin Carlos, signed to replace Guessand, has failed to score a league goal. Other players seemed reluctant to join, with Mahdi Camara snubbing Nice to join Rennes.

Franck Haise complained he did not have the players to challenge for Europe in the autumn and then went further, saying he simply could not “create a group” from the squad. Anger among the fanbase grew and was largely directed at the players, although sporting director Florian Maurice wasn’t spared, nor was Fabrice Bocquet, who briefly took over from Rivère as president.

In November, Terem Moffi and Jérémie Boga were attacked as they alighted the team bus outside the club’s training ground after arriving back from a defeat at Lorient. Both players left the club, Bocquet soon departed and Haise was also gone by the end of the year.

Beyond that, his decision to bring back Claude Puel as manager has proved disastrous. Rivère felt that Haise had lost his fight, and so a mutual decision to part ways was arrived at in December. Puel has presided over just two league wins in 18 games. His tactics and selections have rightly drawn fierce criticism. But there are ills everywhere and, as boos rang around the Allianz Riviera, almost incessantly over the course of a drab draw, it was hard to discern who they were targeting. Everyone, it felt like.

The tension was building and, when the club’s ultras made the trip down from the second to the first tier at half-time, you could be sure it wasn’t for a better view. Their rampage around the pitch at full-time was followed by trouble around the stadium late into the night; staff, guests and journalists – including myself – were blocked in the stadium until after midnight.

Puel said their “disappointment is legitimate” and Rivère called for “unity”. But the fracture at Nice runs very deep. No one at the club seems capable of repairing it and, with talks with prospective buyers ongoing, that may soon no longer be of concern to Ineos. If they sell this summer, they will leave a trail of destruction in their wake.

Talking points

Nice’s fans at least waited until full-time to storm the pitch. Nantes, who were already relegated, hosted Toulouse on the final day of the season, but the match was abandoned after just 22 minutes. The club’s owners did not attend due to safety fears, and their fears were justified when ultras threw ominous black flares and stormed the pitch in great numbers. As players, officials and staff rushed towards the dressing rooms, one man stayed: Nantes manager Vahid Halilhodzic. He stood up to fans, many of whom wore balaclavas, and pleaded, before heading down the tunnel himself, a mix of anguish and sadness etched across his face. “In the 40 years of my career as a player and then a manager, I have never experienced that. It will be deeply engraved in my memory,” he said. And it will be his final memory in football, he confirmed. Quite the note to bow out on. Happy retirement, “Coach Vahid”.

On a night of enduring images – many of violence – there was a comical one at the Paris derby. PSG had wrapped up the Ligue 1 title in midweek, when they beat Lens, but there was no trophy presentation. PSG had hoped to do it after their match against Paris FC on Sunday night. The problem was that their local neighbours, the hosts on the night, were not too keen to facilitate those celebrations. They had their own post-match plans, having confirmed their safety in Ligue 1, which forced PSG into erecting a small stand in front of the away fans pre-match. It was a strange, subdued if fitting celebration for a club whose success is measured by their performances in other, more prestigious competitions. Luis Enrique has already said his focus is on the Champions League final against Arsenal, and it showed as PSG slumped to an inconsequential 2-1 defeat to Paris FC.

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