Football – Marseille launches investigation into Evra incident

PARIS, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Olympique Marseille has launched an internal investigation into a scuffle between defender Patrice Evra and a club fan before a Europa League match in Guimaraes, Portugal, the Ligue 1 club said on Friday.

“Olympique Marseille has taken note of the altercation between an individual and Patrice Evra during the warm-up of the match against Guimaraes (on Thursday),” the club said in a statement.

“An internal investigation has been launched to identify those responsible.”

Video footage showed a Marseille player shooting at a group of fans during a scuffle behind one of the goals, but the club made no mention of the kick.

French full-back Evra has been regularly attacked by Marseille fans since joining from Juventus during the off-season and his poor performances prompted coach Rudi Garcia to drop him from the starting line-up.

“Pat has experience and he can’t react. That’s obvious,” Garcia said.

“Patrice is more than experienced and we obviously cannot react to insults, however vile and unbelievable they may be, just because they come from one of our fans.” (Report by Julien Pretot; Editing by John O’Brien)