2023-12-05 18:41:13
After the death of a Nantes supporter, Saturday December 2, on the sidelines of the match between FC Nantes and OGC Nice, the Minister of Sports did not mince her words. Invited Monday December 4 on France InterAmélie Oudéa-Castéra firmly supported the ban on the movement of supporters as soon as a match “poses a risk”.
“I think that for the moment we must stop on travel, she explained. It is essential to have a time to return to a situation of less violence. It is not possible that we have law enforcement that is so overstretched, property destroyed, buses stoned, people injured, now a dead person. Basta, that’s enough.”
A rating system
“To determine if a match is at risk, there are a whole bunch of criteria to take into account, knowing that this analysis is subject to discussion”warns Éric Borghini, member of the Executive Committee of the French Football Federation (FFF) and president of the Federal Arbitration Commission. “We can assess the history of the clubs among themselves, their liabilities. During derbies, we know that the threat is very high, for example. We must also take into account the history of supporters with certain clubs, like Marseille or Paris, which have fans all over France. »
Under the aegis of the Ministry of the Interior, the national division for the fight against hooliganism (DNLH) has also established a risk ranking, from 1 to 5, concerning professional and amateur matches. Level 1 corresponds to a large and unusual flow of spectators, where the highest level presents serious risks of disturbances to public order requiring exceptional measures.
“From level 2 (corresponding to a degraded context likely to generate deviant behavior on the part of supporters, Editor’s note), the prefectures make the decision whether or not to prohibit certain travel”confides a police source specializing in fan management. “The problem is that we can easily challenge such a decision by the prefecture in court because it is generally based on suspicions of excess. So it’s up to the goodwill of this or that prefecture. »
Communication effect
Éric Borghini fears that a ban on public travel will have the opposite effect than hoped. “At least when supporters travel, you have a framework. If there are any overflows, this remains regulated”he indicates. “If we react in an authoritarian manner, with sanctions, we create a victim mentality among supporters who will wonder how they can remain supporters at heart if we prohibit them from everything. This can have harmful consequences, as they will always find devious ways to overcome these devices”agrees the sociologist specializing in supporterism, Patrick Mignon.
“We cannot evaluate risky matches without a real fan management policy, the sociologist decides. You never know who is doing it. Is it the Ministry of Sports, the Ministry of the Interior? The FFF, the LFP? » And to remember that there are today three different ways to pronounce a stadium ban: an administrative decision from the prefect, a decision from the court or from the club itself, by blocking its ticketing.
Undermined by violence between supporters, football France is now turning its gaze towards England, which has succeeded over the last thirty years in eradicating hooliganism, at least in the stadiums of the first division teams. To do this, they implemented a coherent policy, creating new offenses and applying zero tolerance at the individual level, while removing certain collective constraints, notably the fences around the pitch. “As soon as an Englishman sets foot on the lawn when he has no right to do so, he goes to prison, underlines Éric Borghini. In France this is not the case. But the balance between sanctions and freedoms, between firmness and flexibility, is very complex to find. »
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