French Riots Hit Football: Marseille and Lille Club Stores Looted, 101 Arrested in Marseille Including 27 Minors

Since Saturday's nationwide day of protest over living costs turned violent in Paris, Lyon, Marseille and other cities, the damage has reached French football: Olympique de Marseille and Lille both say their official stores were looted and vandalized.

Marseille confirmed the damage in a statement on Monday, Oct. 19. The club's shop on La Canebière, the city's most famous avenue, took what the club called "significant property damage" and is closed to the public.

The store is run by Marseille's commercial partner, Puma. The club said it "condemns in the strongest possible terms the acts of violence and looting" and expressed solidarity with Puma.

Marseille said fans can still use the club's other official stores in the city. It will announce a reopening "as soon as conditions allow."

Lille's downtown shop closed indefinitely

Lille said its store on Rue Faidherbe in the city center was hit by severe vandalism and looting on Saturday. The club said the shop "suffered extensive damage and widespread looting" and will stay closed until further notice.

On Sunday the club thanked those who helped in the aftermath. It named its store employees first, then passersby, "fans and non-fans alike," who "spontaneously offered their help, a helping hand, and words of comfort."

Arrests in Marseille

The Marseille prosecutor's office said 101 people were arrested following the looting. Twenty-seven of them are underage.

That is a local figure, separate from the national arrest totals. Marseille authorities also banned all public gatherings and demonstrations in the city on Monday, from midday (1000 GMT) until 8 p.m. (1800 GMT), after the violence there.

The prosecutor's office has not said what charges those arrested face.

Scale of the weekend

Over half a million people took to the streets on Saturday, mostly peacefully, to protest rising living costs and poor conditions in schools. Small groups set fires and looted businesses.

The gap between the crowd and the damage matters to the businesses on the receiving end. The looters were a small fraction of the marchers, but a shop on La Canebière suffered the same losses regardless of how the rest of the crowd behaved.

Cleanup operations ran across the country on Sunday, Oct. 18, from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south and from Strasbourg in the east to Bordeaux in the southwest. In Bordeaux, a masked group invaded the residence of the local prefect.

No source has said who was in that group or whether anyone has been arrested over it.

The fixtures go on

The clubs have matches coming up, and the closed shops don't change that. Lille, fourth in Ligue 1, host Turkish champions Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday, Oct. 21.

Marseille, ninth in the table after seven matches, visit Austrian side Sturm Graz in the Europa League on Thursday, Oct. 22.

Neither club has said what the shop closures will cost. Whether the Marseille prosecutor's office will bring charges against the 27 minors it arrested is also unanswered.