On Sunday night, fans of French soccer club Nice confronted and reportedly assaulted players at the club's training grounds, hours after the Ligue 1 side lost its sixth straight match. According to a report from The Athletic, around 400 "ultras" showed up to the Nice training ground after the team returned from the airport and blocked the entrance, preventing the team bus from entering. Two fans entered the bus to verbally accost the team, and once the players disembarked, two were physically assaulted: Terem Moffi and Jérémie Boga have claimed that fans hit them, pulled their hair, and spat at them as they tried to make their way from the team bus into the training facilities.
Both players have been put on leave following the attack (Moffi for a week, and Boga for five days), and both players reportedly went to police afterwards to file complaints against the assailants. The Nice prosecutor's office announced on Tuesday that it will open an investigation into the players' claims of "aggravated violence." Nice sporting director Florian Maurice had to be escorted by security into the team's training facilities, but it appears no one else was attacked in the scrum. According to ESPN, Nice manager Franck Haise was spared the ire of the fans at the training ground, with some cheering him and telling him that he had their full support.
Speaking to RMC Sport, a man identified as Vadim stated that he was part of the group confronting the team at the training ground, but that he did not see any violence. He did confirm that Moffi and Boga took the brunt of what he called a verbal attack (RMC Sport also reports that there were racist insults lobbed at both players, who are black), but that he "didn't see any violence," though he conceded that "it was dark" and the atmosphere was "electric."
On Monday, Nice released a statement about the situation, saying that, while the club "understands the frustration generated by the succession of under-performances," the actions of the gathered fans were "unacceptable." The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP), which governs France's soccer apparatus, also called the situation "unacceptable" in a statement of its own.
COMMUNIQUÉ DE LA LFP
— Ligue de Football Professionnel (@LFPfr) December 2, 2025
La LFP condamne avec la plus grande fermeté les actes de violence commis à l’encontre des joueurs et du staff de l’OGC Nice.
Ces agressions, totalement inacceptables, portent atteinte à l’intégrité des acteurs du jeu et aux valeurs du football.
La LFP…
Moffi and Boga were reportedly targeted in part due to their on-field performances, but also due to extracurricular actions that were seen as disloyal. Moffi was seen chatting amicably with Lorient president Loïc Féry after Sunday's 3-1 loss—the Nigerian international moved from Lorient to Nice in the summer of 2023—while Boga, who is from Marseille, invited fans of that rival club to a recent game at Nice's home stadium, which Marseille won 5-1.
The repercussions from the attack are already being felt. Moffi and Boga have reportedly (and understandably) stated that they want to leave the club, and other players are said to have contacted their agents in order to secure moves away from the French Riviera side. Meanwhile, Haise is weighing whether to resign without compensation, according to an RMC Sport report. He previously said that he had spoken to the club brass and said he would understand if he was fired in order to "create a shock," but that they declined.
Nice currently sits in 10th in the Ligue 1 table and dead last in the Europa League group stage, having lost all five of its matches in the latter competition, most recently losing 3-0 away to Porto. The club finished fourth in Ligue 1 last season but lost a Champions League qualifier to Benfica this season, sending it to the Europa League. The club next hosts 12th-place Angers on Sunday in Ligue 1 play.
