Martin Lange / Photo credit: FRANCK FIFE / AFP
This Saturday evening, PSG beat FC Nantes, two goals to one. A match marked by the absence of Nantes supporters, a week after the death of one of them, stabbed. The Ministry of the Interior issued an order prohibiting the movement of supporters for eight Ligue 1 and Coupe de France matches, four of which were lifted by the Council of State. Despite everything, these bans could become widespread.
Are we moving towards a generalization of bans on supporters during matches? In any case, this is the wish of the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. Faced with the increase in incidents, she is calling for a moratorium on fan travel for matches classified as high risk. The Interior Ministry therefore banned eight this weekend. A solution which will not eliminate violence in stadiums and which could even make it worse, according to Dominique Bodin, sociologist of sport.
More difficult security
“It’s a very bad solution, taken urgently because it will not prevent the most disruptive, the most violent supporters from moving around, which will make securing the sports venue very difficult because “They will be scattered throughout the stands,” he assures. A sanction which also punishes all supporters for the slippages of a few, adds the sociologist.
Moreover, the national association of supporters who are fighting against these banning orders denounced four of them before the Council of State. And the administrative court ruled in his favor, allowing supporters from Bordeaux, Auxerre, Lens and Reims to travel this weekend.