Entrance to the Stade de France for Saturday's Champions League final turned into a total fiasco, highlighting France's inexperience in managing crowds of supporters.
Problem: the country is hosting two huge sporting events – the Rugby World Cup and the Olympics – within the next two years.
Is France doomed to relive the scenes of yesterday, or was the problem specific to this match?
From the 67th final of the Champions League, played this Saturday at the Stade de France (Saint-Denis), we will remember Madrid's victory, the imperial match of their goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, but also the scenes of chaos around the stadium and in the streets of Paris.
The match started more than half an hour late, due to people entering the stadium without tickets and security forces completely overwhelmed.
In Paris itself, a police charge in a bar full of Liverpool supporters was massively relayed on social networks, while tear gas was used, around the stadium and in the fan zones.
A failure strongly criticized by the foreign press: "Security in crisis", for
El Pais
,
Die Zeit
and
The Guardian
speak of "chaos" and
CNN
of "mess".
France has therefore exposed its crowd and fan management problems to the world, just a year away from hosting the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and two from the Olympic Games in 2024. Two planetary events, among the most massively followed of the sporting world (with the Football World Cup): Will France be ready?
Carried away by the (sports) crowd
“It is necessarily worrying, if only in terms of visibility, abounds Clément Lopez, sociologist of sports organizations and sports governance in France at the University of Paris-Saclay.
The Champions League final is one of the most publicized events in the world, and it does bad publicity in the country.
“What might even disgust some fans to come to France for other sporting events?
“We cannot exclude it”, regrets the researcher.
Same observation with Ronan Evain, general manager of Football Supporters Europe (FSE): “France constantly repeats the same errors in its security doctrine for the management of sports crowds.
There is no questioning, although the ultra-mediatization of yesterday's events on a global scale will perhaps allow this policy of the ostrich to be stopped.
»
Force Deployment
In addition to this safe treatment of the crowd, "with an influx of police and the use of tear gas", the director general deplores France's inexperience: "The movement of supporters for away matches is almost all prohibited. in France, which means that the police and the prefectures no longer know how to manage crowds".
Should we give in to panic for all that?
Not necessarily “France has organized several major sporting events recently, such as the 2007 Rugby World Cup or Euro 2016 in football, in a more particularly expected post-attack context.
The whole thing was not marred by too many major incidents, ”reassures Clément Lopez.
No football, no panic
The two upcoming sports masses also have a major difference with yesterday's match: they do not concern the round ball.
What could potentially change everything, Saturday, Pierre Barthélemy, lawyer for several groups of French supporters, was present near the Stade de France as an observer for the Football Supporters Europe association, of which he is a member of the board of directors.
He says: “The French authorities panic when it comes to football, considering that these are much more risky events than for other sports.
We therefore see the appearance of poorly arranged, unprecedented devices, without habits on the part of security officers, which creates flow management problems.
»
In other sporting events, the authorities "use more classic and usual methods, allowing fewer incidents and clashes", explains the lawyer.
So nothing says that the Rugby World Cup or the Olympics will create this kind of incident.
Analysis shared by Ronan Evain: “The supporters of other sports are treated differently, so we won't see the same mistakes as yesterday for other competitions”.
Furthermore, rugby or Olympics enthusiasts do not have similar behavior “Sports outside of football do not trigger the same passion, nor the same popular momentum, adds Clément Lopez.
The crowd that wants to see a test at the Olympic Games does not have the same expectations, the same behavior, the same density, as for a Champions League final”.
Another specificity of yesterday's match, the Stade de France.
Or rather its location: in Seine-Saint-Denis, far from Paris, the city which hosted most of the supporters then going to the stadium.
It is in particular the not very obvious access to the Stade de France from the RER which would have created some of the incidents, according to the lawyer: "We would have needed more stewards to direct people, and better distribute the crowd between the different entrances to the stadium".
Errors that show the inexperience of France, but which should be easier to avoid in more modest stadiums, and better served.
Ongoing investigation
A problem that will arise less during the Rugby World Cup, for example, where most matches will be played outside this enclosure, “in smaller stadiums, with supporters on site from the morning, because the distance between the city center and the match is much shorter,” reassures Pierre Barthélemy.
"Before Saturday evening, no one questioned France to organize future sporting events", contextualizes Clément Lopez, "proof that until then, the country had done rather well".
It therefore remains for the nation to learn the lessons of yesterday's chaos in order to make it a sad isolated phenomenon, and not the reality of sport in France.
“The country cannot escape its self-criticism,” notes Ronan Evain.
UEFA, the European football organization, has notably opened an investigation.
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