Scuffles mar Servette victory

Servette's Sébastien Fournier needed treatment after his half-time clash with Lausanne's Pape Thiaw Keystone

Servette climbed up to second place in the Swiss football league on Monday thanks to a 3-0 win over their Lake Geneva neightbours Lausanne. The result was overshadowed though by a series of bad-tempered incidents both on and off the pitch.

The worst of the on-pitch incidents came on the stroke of half-time when Lausanne’s Senegalese striker Pape Thiaw committed a heavy two-footed foul on Servette’s Aleksandar Bratic. The Yugoslav defender was sent straight to hospital for surgery on his foot, while Thiaw was sent straight off the pitch.

But as he made his way down the tunnel to the dressing room Thiaw is then alleged to have headbutted Servette’s Sébastien Fournier.

The national league said on Tuesday that it would be considering the case against Thiaw.

“The referee himself didn’t see the incident between Fournier and Thiaw,” revealed disciplinary commission president Odilo Bürgy. “However Servette’s captain Eric Pédat did include an account in his written report.”

Bürgy added that he would now be consulting with disciplinary judge Urs Studer who could hand Thiaw a maximum ban of four matches.

The forward received little sympathy from his club after the match. Lausanne president Bernard Jaton said the Senegalese player’s behaviour had been “unacceptable.”

“Even if he had been provoked beforehand, it wouldn’t change a thing,” Jaton added.

As far as the night’s actual football went, Servette secured their win with first half goals from Alexandre Comisetti, Goran Obradovic and Alex Frei.

Monday’s result lifted Servette above third-placed Young Boys on goal difference. Grasshoppers remain in pole position after their resounding 4-1 victory away at Neuchâtel Xamax on Sunday.

swissinfo with agencies