2023-04-18 22:38:48
Supporters of the Swiss club Basel are banned from traveling to Nice on Thursday for the quarter-final second leg of the Europa League Conference, according to an order issued on Tuesday by the Ministry of the Interior. The ministry justifies its decision by the fact that the movements of FC-Basel are “frequently a source of disturbance to public order” because of the “violent behavior of certain supporters or individuals claiming the quality of supporting this team “.
On the other hand “certain supporters” of OGC Nice “frequently adopt violent behavior”, “in the vicinity and within the stadiums”, adds the Ministry of the Interior. “Relations between the supporters” of the two teams “who share an opposite political ideology, are imbued with animosity”, continues Place Beauvau, specifying that before the first leg in Basel, on April 13, “supporters at risk of the two teams have made contact and planned to face each other”.
On the day of this meeting, there was “massive use of pyrotechnic devices” and “incidents and provocations were relayed on social networks, without however the scheduled clashes taking place”, adds the ministry. According to him, “it is to be feared” that the return match on Thursday “will be the scene of these clashes”. FC Basel supporters were talked about during the round of 16 first leg of the same competition in March 2022, in Marseille. Clashes had opposed ultras from both sides. Calm had been restored in a few minutes, but several dozen smoke bombs were then lit in the visitor parking lot.
Violent clashes also took place between supporters of Nice and those of the German club FC Cologne in September 2022, in the stands of the Allianz Riviera, before the kick-off of a Europa League Conference meeting. During these incidents, 32 people were injured, including one seriously, and four were hospitalized. In a press release on April 11, the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi indicated that he did not want FC Basel supporters, lovers of “sulphurous atmospheres”, to travel to Nice, adding that it was “out of the question to witness excesses once again”.
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