France's sports secretary wants security clampdown

PARIS (Reuters) - France's Secretary of State for Sport Thierry Braillard has called for tougher security inside French stadia after crowd trouble marred a Ligue 1 game at Marseille's Stade Velodrome on Sunday.

The Olympique de Marseille v Olympique Lyonnais game, which ended in a 1-1 draw, was interrupted for 23 minutes after fans threw glass bottles onto the pitch.

"It's unacceptable and I think we need to stand more firm on the security checks," Braillard told RTL radio on Monday.

"We're six months away from the Euro (European Championship), which is a fantastic event, and I'm urging everyone to take the measure of what happened.

"There are security conditions that need to be respected, you cannot have glass bottles in the stands."

OM president Vincent Labrune said on Sunday that the club would "assume its responsibilities".

He added on Monday in a statement on the club's website that safety nets 'around the curves' would be set up again to protect the players.

French Professional League (LFP) president Frederic Thiriez said it was time to consider introducing far tougher penalties.

"(A) 50,000 euros (fine) looks like very little for this kind of thing," he said, adding that the question now was whether such sanctions should be increased "by a few zeros".

Thiriez added it was also time to consider points deductions for clubs whose crowd cause trouble.

France will host next year's Euro 2016 finals with Marseille and Lyon both hosting games.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty and Martyn Herman)