Paulo Fonseca has needed to adopt a new match routine.
The Lyon head coach no longer does his team talk in the dressing room before Ligue 1 games. Instead, it is conducted at the hotel or training ground before boarding the bus to the stadium.
When they arrive, he gets off the bus and speaks briefly with every player before embracing them, trying to make the most of the time he has. From that moment on, the 52-year-old cannot have any contact with his team until after the game.
“It was the most difficult moment for me,” said Fonseca in a behind-the-scenes club documentary called Alone Against Everyone. “I have to wait far away from the players. I feel like an hour lasts four or five.”
Fonseca was handed a nine-month ban after he angrily confronted referee Benoit Millot, squaring up to the official head-to-head in stoppage time of Lyon’s 2-1 league win over Brest on March 2. It was only his fifth match in charge after replacing the sacked Pierre Sage in January.
The ban means he cannot access the dressing room, tunnel, pitch, dugouts or any corridors leading to these areas. That punishment, issued by the league’s disciplinary committee just three days after the incident, remains in place until September 15, while his ban from the dugout and the officials’ dressing room lasts until November 30.
It is an unprecedented punishment for a Ligue 1 coach.
For the last four league games, Fonseca has had to watch from a technical position, usually the press box in the stands, with his analysts. Against Strasbourg, he stood in a wooden cabin under renovation, looking on helplessly as his team suffered a 4-2 defeat. During Lyon’s 2-0 win against Nice, he was accompanied in the stands by his opposite number, Franck Haise, who was also suspended.
To cope with the restrictions, Lyon now have match scenarios planned out before kick-off, but Fonseca’s influence is severely limited. The former Milan coach does not wear an earpiece, as he is not allowed direct contact with the bench.
Assistant coach Jorge Maciel, who was interim manager following Sage’s dismissal in January, has taken over some of the duties a manager or head coach is usually responsible for, but even those close to the situation describe it as “far from ideal”.
Yet Lyon are riding the storm regardless. They sit fifth in the league, two points off automatic Champions League qualification, and will host Manchester United in the Europa League quarter-final on Thursday.
As the ban does not extend to European competition, Fonseca will be on the touchline for the first time in just under a month (he did the same for Lyon’s Europa League matches against FCSB, formerly known as Steaua Bucharest), and all eyes will be on how he behaves.
Fonseca describes himself as an “emotional person”, but he lost control of those emotions when he rushed towards referee Maillot. “There was, it seems, a slight contact with the nose,” the official told L’Equipe. “(It was) a particularly intimidating, aggressive attitude, which one can hardly imagine from a professional coach.”
“The commission deplores and regrets that once again an actor has clearly abandoned his ambition for responsibility,” added Sebastien Deneux, the league’s disciplinary committee president. “This is all the more serious because he is a coach and, therefore, an educator. His behaviour is completely incompatible with his role.”
Fonseca admitted his mistake and publicly apologised after the incident. “I made a stupid mistake, I blame myself,” he told French media. He and the club have proposed to meet footballers from local Lyon amateur teams and referees to speak about the importance of respecting officials.
One person with knowledge of the situation said such an outburst is out of character for the usually “gentleman-like” Fonseca. Another raised that the new coach is away from his Ukrainian wife and family, who live in Milan, and that the incident occurred days after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was humiliated by American president Donald Trump at the White House.
That does not excuse his behaviour and the club has not condoned such actions, but people close to Fonseca feel that a nine-month ban feels extreme.
Lyon said in a statement that they “deplore” the fact Fonseca was judged solely on his actions without appearing to take into consideration his lack of intent to physically attack the referee. The club also noted the “harmful context” surrounding French refereeing at the time, which they believe influenced Fonseca’s punishment.
Weeks before, the French referees’ union announced legal action after Marseille president Pablo Longoria said his side were the victims of corruption, which the union said fuelled hateful messages to referees. The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), which governs the top two tiers of professional football in France, handed Longoria a 15-match ban.
Fonseca described his own punishment in the documentary as a “great injustice”. Lyon have appealed to the French National Olympic Committee for Sport (CNOSF), which has made a proposal. A hearing between Fonseca and the league is now scheduled for May 6, but the league does not have to follow the CNOSF’s advice.
A source with knowledge of the situation said some people were shocked that the national union of French football coaches has not made any statement or taken a position publicly about the ban, considering it could prevent a coach from doing their job fully, and could therefore lead to their sacking.
That is not the case at Lyon. Despite media pressure, John Textor — whose Eagle Football Group owns Lyon as well as a stake in Premier League club Crystal Palace — and Lyon’s technical director, Matthieu Louis-Jean, have never thought about dismissing their new head coach.
Fonseca is the fourth head coach since Textor’s arrival in December 2022, after Laurent Blanc, Fabio Grosso and Sage.
“I stand with you today, and always,” Textor posted on social media. “You made a mistake… your apology was sincere… and your punishment is clearly too severe. You are the right man for OL and we shall persevere.”
In Fonseca’s absence, Lyon have won three out of four league games but suffered a 4-2 defeat against Strasbourg last month. When Fonseca spoke to the media nearly a week later — the sanction preventing him from speaking to media straight after the loss — he played down the impact his ban had had.
According to a club source, the incident has not harmed his reputation, in fact the opposite. “There is a sacred union,” the source tells The Athletic. “The players, fans and club empathise with him and are united around him.”
The strong bond Fonseca has with his players was evident when they rushed over to him and celebrated after scoring in their 3-1 Europa League win against FCSB, the day after his punishment was issued. As the players returned to their positions, Fonseca looked to the floor and wiped away a tear.
“It’s a gesture that means a lot to me and a moment I will keep for the rest of my life,” he said.
Despite his suspension on league matchdays, Fonseca continues to lead training. He conducts every pre-match league press conference, discussing routine matters such as injuries and opponents, while Maciel takes care of post-match.
Fonseca did, however, miss the pre-match league press conference for the game against Nice on March 8, for “personal reasons”. Maciel took charge and reinforced that despite Fonseca’s absence on the touchline, it is still a “team effort”.
“The role of coaches is like that of a parent,” said Maciel. “You’ll see your son’s education when he is not with you, not when he is with you. We prepare the team so it’s autonomous and they apply the education we’ve given them when we’re not there.”
“It’s not easy,” Lyon centre-back Moussa Niakhate told French TV programme L’Equipe du Soir after their 2-1 win against Lille last week. “We try to take something positive from this sanction.
“If we want to achieve this season, the leaders have to show even more courage. We need to stay focused and analyse the problems we face on the pitch. We’re not looking for excuses.
“We’re going to face this punishment together because it’s going to be a long one. This is our story because in the end, we have to be in the Champions League and win something in Europe for French football.”
Fonseca was last on the touchline a month ago when he guided his side to a 7-1 aggregate win against FCSB, setting up the Europa League quarter-final clash with United.
The Europa League has become his “oxygen moments”, as one source put it, small breaths of air when he reconnects with fans and players and is temporarily at home on the touchline.
Given the circumstances, the motivation to progress to the semi-finals is even stronger. If Lyon are knocked out, Fonseca may not resume his full managerial duties until November.
(Top photo: Paulo Fonseca with French referee Benoit Millot; by Jeff Pachoud/AFP via Getty Images)
