Lyon returns to Marseille amid heightened security

Lyon: Lyon will return to Marseille amid heightened security measures Wednesday to play a game that was postponed after the team’s bus was attacked by fans throwing rocks in October.

The rescheduled match comes just four days after the death of a fan ahead of a French league game that marked a new low in a season marred by violence.

The match between Marseille and Lyon was initially scheduled on Oct. 29 but was postponed after fans threw rocks and other projectiles at the Lyon bus and then-coach Fabio Grosso needed stitches in his forehead after being hit by broken glass.

Lyon fans have not been allowed to travel to the rescheduled game, which takes place in the wake of the incident in the western city of Nantes, where a fan was killed during a fight close to the stadium before a game between Nantes and Nice.

The match in Marseille will be under close scrutiny, with local authorities under pressure to deliver an effective security plan.

On Monday, French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera called for “a global and extraordinarily determined response” to an upsurge of violence in French soccer that culminated with the fan’s death.

“It’s just not possible that police forces are so overstretched, that private property is destroyed, that buses are stoned and people injured,” Oudea-Castera said. “And now, a death. That’s enough.”