Vincent Labrune goes on a crusade against “crime” in the stands. Faced with repeated incidents in several Ligue 1 stadiums this season, in Montpellier, Lyon, Rennes, Lens and even Saint-Étienne very recently, the president of the LFP gave voice in the context of the general assembly of the FFF in Nice this Saturday.
“It is a miracle that there were no deaths in Saint-Étienne during the accession dam against Auxerre, declared Labrune in particular. I don’t want to know about a death in a stadium as president. We want to be the Development League, not the War League in the stadiums. I appeal to all of you, to your responsibility. You have to be brave and put these criminals where they belong, not in stadiums. »
The president of the LFP also pointed to a worrying assessment and underlined the need to act.
“We had a disastrous season on and off the pitch,” he said. We have to change gears very strongly. The League, of course, even if the League is constrained in its arsenal of sanctions. We don’t have police or judicial powers, we don’t even have the power to sanction individuals. We only have an arsenal of collective sanctions, closings of stands. The FFF will accompany us. At the League, we are going to take our responsibility, the clubs must also take theirs and be aware that they must help us, as well as the public authorities, as Christian Estrosi said (Editor’s note: the mayor of Nice, who hosted the assembly of the FFF). »
Labrune does not hesitate to qualify the troublemakers from the stands as criminals. “It bothers me when I hear the ANS (Editor’s note: the national association of supporters) say that there are good and bad supporters, good and bad ultras. No, there are supporters and ultras. I really like the positive fervor of the ultras, but today there are criminals in our enclosures. I think that the state, the communities, the clubs, we have to get the criminals out of the stadiums. »
In early June, Labrune commissioned criminologist Alain Bauer to draw up a report on the excesses of supporters who marred the past season in Ligue 1. The conclusions of the report are expected in September.