“Football should be a celebration. » The words of Gennaro Gattuso, the coach of Olympique de Marseille, made on Sunday December 3, following his troops’ victory against Rennes (2-0), resonate sadly with current events. During the night from Saturday to Sunday, a Nantes supporter died following an injury received during an altercation ahead of the match counting for the 14e day of Ligue 1 between FC Nantes and OGC Nice. A new news item involving football supporters in France this season, with a tragic epilogue, which could have consequences for the rest of the season.
“We can’t continue like this in football”, scolded Amélie Oudéa-Castéra on Monday. If she remained cautious about the death of the Nantes fan, member of the ultra group the Brigade Loire, while waiting “let the prosecutor establish the facts to the end”the Minister of Sports, interviewed on France Inter, considered that it was preferable “for the moment to stop on the travel of supporters” in the event of a risky match.
Saturday December 2, an hour before the Nantes-Nice kick-off, a 31-year-old supporter “collapsed” as a result of’“a wound in the back that could correspond to a bladed weapon”, explained the public prosecutor of Nantes, Renaud Gaudeul. An attack not far from the Beaujoire stadium, which took place after the passage of a procession of Nice fans near the stronghold of the Nantes ultras, aboard ten VTCs, and which the Nantes prosecutor’s office is investigating. On Monday, the spokesperson for Nantes VTCs, David Tan, mentioned In The Team ” a trap ” Nantes fans, determined to “extract the Nice supporters from the cars”having achieved “to the drama”. A VTC driver surrendered during the night and was taken into custody.
A little over a month after the incidents on the sidelines of Marseille (OM)-Lyon (OL), during which the bus transporting the Lyon players and staff was stoned by OM supporters and the now ex-coach from Lyon Fabio Grosso (he was sacked by OL on November 30) had suffered a serious facial injury, incidents continue to mar the Ligue 1 season. Nearly two weeks earlier, two Brest supporters were slightly injured after their car was the target of projectiles following a victory in Montpellier. And, earlier in the season, a match between Montpellier and Clermont-Ferrand was interrupted after a firecracker exploded near Clermont goalkeeper Mory Diaw.
“Basta, that’s enough” for the minister
So many events that the Professional Football League (LFP) would have done well without, engaged in over-the-counter negotiations to sell its television rights for the 2024-2029 seasons, after the failure of its call for tenders. ‘autumn.
On Monday, Amélie Oudéa-Castera called for “a global initiative and a global response. A radical situation, radical measures »ensuring that he is on the same line as Vincent Labrune, the president of the LFP. “It’s just not possible that we have law enforcement stretched to this extent, property destroyed, buses stoned, people injured, now one dead.”she insisted. “Basta, that’s enough!” »
The eruptive question of outbursts in football is not recent. “This type of violence has been more or less a regular occurrence in French football since the 1980s. The phenomenon had certainly lost its scale, but it is still part of the ordinary in football”observed sociologist Patrick Mignon in 2021, while the stadiums and their surroundings were experiencing an upsurge in violence, following the Covid-19 pandemic.
To deal with these excesses, the authorities resorted to administrative travel bans. Introduced in 2011, this system was initially intended to remain exceptional and to be justified by real risks of “unacceptable disturbance of public order”. It quickly became “an easy solution for certain prefectures”related the sociologist Nicolas Hourcade, cited by The Team in 2020. To the point that in 2019 the government put in place measures to avoid “fall into trivialization” of these bans, which sometimes mobilize more law enforcement than a travel authorization – and raise questions of freedom of movement.
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The meeting between Nantes and Nice on Saturday was classified “at risk level 2” (out of 5) by the national anti-hooliganism division, due to the antagonism between supporters of the two cities for around ten years. In this context, and “considering the tense context at the start of the season during football matches” (according to the prefectural decree), the movement of Nice fans had to be supervised by the police.
After the words of the Minister of Sports, will travel bans be more systematized, including during meetings not classified as risky? One thing is certain: Wednesday December 6, no Lyon supporters will be allowed to travel to Marseille for the late match between the two Olympics. The Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture has banned the arrival of OL supporters for this meeting rescheduled after the stone crushing of the Lyon bus. “Above all, I hope that nothing negative happens and that it will be a day of celebration”concluded Fabio Grosso, Sunday, marked by the news item in Nantes.