French soccer league struggling with violence, discriminatory chanting and low-scoring matches

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN

There’s been homophobic and racist chanting in the stands, a team bus pelted with stones, a game called off because of crowd trouble, and precious few goals on the field. The French soccer league is making headlines for all the wrong reasons this season. And now even the French government is calling for something to be done about it. After 13 rounds of games this season, the number of incidents is worrying officials who have been dealing with an upsurge of violence in stadiums over the past two campaigns. Meanwhile, the average number of goals per game after 12 rounds was lower than in the last three seasons with the number of scoreless draws on the rise.