Sidney Govou rubbishes Montpellier-Lyon match-fixing claims

Former Lyon winger Sidney Govou has refuted claims from Gérard Collomb, the city’s mayor from 2001 to 2017, that Olympique Lyonnais and Montpellier had fixed the result a decisive end-of-season Ligue 1 game between the two sides twenty years ago. According to Collomb, Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas and his Montpellier counterpart, the late Louis Nicollin, conspired for the game to end in a draw, which it did. However,  contrary to Collomb’s claims, a draw would not have necessarily handed Lyon the title and Montpellier their safety.

The allegations have been lambasted by Sidney Govou, who was on the Mosson pitch that night. “That gentleman is insane, he’s stupid“, Govou said to So Foot. “A 1-1 draw obviously worked out fine for both teams, so we had little need to play for more, but that does not mean match-fixing. Stop talking nonsense.” Govou’s response has been echoed by former Lyon physio Robert Duverne. “It was not rigged“, Duverne said to L’Équipe. “Montpellier were sitting deep and we could not find any cracks whilst we didn’t want to concede either.“

Meanwhile, former Montpellier player Cedric Barbosa has claimed to the outlet that his team were kept informed of their relegation rivals’ results that night, which might explain both teams’ conservative approach. “We knew that a draw would be enough, but I never knew anything about an arrangement.“

GFFN | Bastien Cheval