Cyrille de La Morinerie, edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: LOIC VENANCE / AFP
On the sidelines of the Ligue 1 match between Nantes and Nice on Saturday evening, a Nantes supporter was killed during clashes before the match. Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra wants to generalize the ban on fan travel during high-risk matches, but the idea divides among football specialists.
The Lyon bus stoned before OM-OL, clashes between supporters on the sidelines of Ajaccio-Bordeaux, and recently the death three days ago of a Nantes fan during clashes before the Nantes-Nice match… The violence is spreading invites once again into the world of French football, with the common point being the presence of opposing supporters. To avoid a new tragedy, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra suggests generalizing the ban on fan travel during high-risk matches.
“You don’t go to see a match to experience death”
A radical but necessary measure according to the former Secretary of State for Sports, Thierry Braillard. “We are not going to see a football match to experience death,” he thunders to Europe 1. “If it has to come to that so that they (the violent supporters) understand the seriousness of the situation , I think we have to do it,” said the former Secretary of State under François Hollande’s five-year term.
Banning all travel by football fans, Dominique Bodin, specialist in fanism, is not in favor of it. “Today, supporters move in an organized manner. The day we ban everything, they will move alone and things will be much more dangerous because these supporters will find themselves anywhere in the stadium , and out of control”, he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.
However, the president of the Professional Football League (LFP), Vincent Labrune, is of the same opinion as the Minister of Sports: he also wants to ban supporters from traveling.