Five minutes into the game, Dimitri Payet was readying himself to take a corner when he went down after being struck by a water bottle that was thrown from the stands. 

The players were initially sent to the dressing rooms by the referee and the match looked set to resume after about an hour, but when Marseille players didn’t return back onto the pitch due to safety concerns, the referee was forced to abandon the game.

Lyon president Aulas later apologised to Payet through the club’s twitter handle and confirmed that the perpetrator was caught. 

The fact that this wasn’t the sole incident of such fan behaviour in Ligue 1 this season will be worrying for the higher-ups. In September, the match between Angers and Marseille during had fans taking to the pitch after violence ensued in the stands. The Lens vs Lille game was also marred by crowd trouble.

In August, Payet himself was struck by a bottle thrown from the stands, which he threw back into the crowd, leading to fans storming the pitch and the match being abandoned.

France legend Thierry Henry, who was speaking on the incident, said: “People are going to watch this. Once again, we’re going to see a match interrupted by idiots. It’s not what I want the English, Spanish and Italians to see of the French league”.