Supporters overflows: the bad example of French football

The match went off without animosity between supporters, but the situation ended up deteriorating. Wednesday September 22, after the meeting between Angers and Marseille at the Raymond-Kopa stadium, supporters of the two clubs came to blows on the lawn. A new invasion of the field for Ligue 1, which has just experienced three in a month, the second in the space of a week after that during the Lens-Lille match at the Bollaert-Delelis stadium, on September 18.

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On the ground, the French championship saw an exciting start to the season, according to observers. But these new incidents, after those observed in Montpellier on August 8 and in Nice on August 22, spoil the party and the return of supporters to the stadiums after eighteen months of deprivation due to Covid-19. What to react Jean-Michel Blanquer, the Minister of National Education, Youth and Sports, on LCI, Thursday, September 23: “You have to be firm. These are people who damage the image of sport, who overturn what sport should be, namely fraternity between citizens. ”

Since then, new sanctions have fallen: the disciplinary commission of the Professional Football League (LFP) sanctioned RC Lens with a total closed door as a precaution, pending its final conclusions on October 6. On Thursday, she spoke out in favor of the closure of the Ultras platform in Angers and the ban on travel for OM supporters.

Towards more individual sanctions

A month after the sanctions imposed on OGC Nice – three games behind closed doors and a withdrawal of two points, one of which was suspended – following the match against OM, French football has come to wonder if these Collective penalties are at best insufficient, at worst unnecessary to prevent further abuse in the stadiums.

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“If it is proven that the clubs which play at home did not ensure the organization of a match well, then sanctioning them seems logical”, tempers Nicolas Hourcade, sociologist and supporterism specialist. In Nice, where supporters had thrown projectiles at Marseille players before entering the lawn, the sanctions have not suffered from any dispute because of the security breaches observed at the Allianz Riviera.

Since then, the Riviera club, which still has to serve a match behind closed doors, has installed an anti-projectile net in its stadium and planed the bottom of its stand to avoid further overflows. The clubs also use security companies for the matches, but during the various incidents, the stewards seemed overwhelmed.

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