2023-12-10 22:24:13
The decisive match in Group B of the Champions League between Lens and Sevilla will be played without Andalusian supporters, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced on Sunday during an interview on the online media Brut.
“I am going to prohibit Seville supporters from coming to Lens,” declared the minister, questioned about the travel bans on supporters following the death of a Nantes fan during an altercation with Nice supporters on December 2, for which a VTC driver was indicted and imprisoned.
This announcement comes 48 hours before the match, which is decisive for qualification for the Europa League play-offs. Several hundred Sevillian supporters were expected in Lens and, for the most part, have already paid significant expenses for their trip to Artois.
“We don’t have that for other sports”
More generally, these events “raise the particular question of football”, a sport where “the supporters, not all but a small part, are the most violent”, estimated Gérald Darmanin. “We don’t have that for other sports,” added the minister.
The Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, declared on Tuesday that she was in favor of “a moratorium on fan travel” by December 18.
She “took this position after consulting me with the president of the League (of professional football, Vincent Labrune, Editor’s note) to create an electric shock”, said Gérald Darmanin, less than eight months before the kick-off of the Olympic Games in Paris (July 26 – August 11).
On October 29, a match between OM and Olympique Lyonnais was canceled and postponed due to the stones of the coaches of OL players and their supporters, en route to the Vélodrome stadium, by Marseille supporters.
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