Football: fans banned from travelling for eight matches of L1 and Coupe de France this weekend

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: LOIC VENANCE / AFP 15:49 p.m., December 08, 2023

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin banned the travel of football fans for five matches of the 15th day of Ligue 1 and three matches of the 8th round of the Coupe de France scheduled until Sunday, in a decree published Friday in the Official Journal. According to the decree, these matches present a "real and serious risk of clashes between fans", in a context of "exacerbation of the increasingly serious violence observed since the beginning of the football season".

"These decrees are highly questionable"

On Matchday 15 of Ligue 1, the supporters concerned are those of RC Lens for the Montpellier/Lens match on Friday at 21 p.m., FC Nantes for PSG/Nantes on Saturday at 21 p.m., Stade de Reims for Nice/Reims on Sunday at 13 p.m., Toulouse for Lyon/Toulouse on Sunday at 17:05 p.m. and those of OM for Lorient/Marseille on Sunday at 20:45 p.m. In the 8th round of the Coupe de France, are concerned those of the Girondins de Bordeaux for Angoulême/Bordeaux on Saturday at 14 pm, those of Nîmes Olympique for Saint-Etienne/Nîmes on Saturday at 15 pm and those of AJ Auxerre for Saint-Méziery/Auxerre on Saturday at 17 pm.

The National Association of Supporters (ANS) has appealed to the Council of State to challenge the ministerial and prefectural decrees applicable to some of these matches: those of AJA, Lens, Reims and Bordeaux. The hearing will take place at 14 p.m. "These contentious appeals are in no way intended to minimize the seriousness of last Saturday's tragedy" in Nantes, adds the ANS, which has "chosen not to contest the orders relating to the other matches." These orders are highly questionable. But they will attract very large crowds. It's too late to shake up their management."

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On Thursday, RC Lens had also expressed "its greatest question" about the prefectural decree prohibiting the travel of its supporters to Montpellier, arguing in particular that this match was absolutely not "classified as risky". On Tuesday, Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said she was in favour of "a moratorium on the movement of supporters" by December 18, after the death last weekend of a Nantes fan during an altercation with Nice fans, for which a VTC driver was indicted and jailed on Monday.

On 29 October, a match between OM and Olympique Lyonnais was cancelled and postponed due to the stoning of the buses of OL players and their supporters, on their way to the Stade Vélodrome, by Marseille supporters. Former OL coach Fabio Grosso suffered facial injuries. Nazi salutes and monkey chants were then reported in the visitors' parking lot at the Stade Vélodrome. After the incidents of 29 October, several investigations were opened by the Marseille prosecutor's office.