This collapsed barrier in Lille-Amiens led to serious injuries and the game being abandoned.

Saturday’s Ligue 1 match between Lille and Amiens ended after just 15 minutes thanks to a barrier at the front of the away stand collapsing while visiting Lille fans celebrated a goal. That led to many fans falling forward and some landing on each other. Although initial reports said no one was seriously hurt, an official from the LFP organizing body later said three fans were hospitalized, with 17 in total injured. Here’s video of the stand collapse from Goal.com:

Afterwards, Amiens’ president argued that this was thanks to the actions of Lille supporters rather than anything wrong with the barrier:

Amiens president Bernard Joannin spoke to the media at a hastily-arranged press conference after the incident, and pointed the finger of blame at a section of ultras behind the goal.

He said: “Football must be a celebration and the police warned us that 200 very angry ultras were in the section reserved for Lille fans and they launched themselves in a disorderly way – more than 500 people – on this barrier which was in perfect condition.”

Regardless of who was to blame, the match was quickly abandoned, as per this LFP statement:

After a crisis meeting between the LFP delegate, the Prefect and the presidents of both clubs, the decision has been made to abandon the Amiens-Lille match for security reasons.

The LFP expresses its solidarity with the injured and their families.

[Goal]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.