“I am considered a sub-citizen”… Bordeaux supporters angry at the arrests

The organization of Girondin supporters has been frustrated by a multitude of contradictory administrative and judicial decisions. The episode illustrates a hostile context for supporter travel.

The emotional elevator. While they thought they were attending the match between the Girondins de Bordeaux and Paris FC, Bordeaux supporters saw their travel prohibited by a double arrested, prefectural and ministerial, published two days before the meeting, Thursday November 23. The ministerial decree was confirmed the next day by the Council of State, but a final appeal before the Administrative Court, concerning the prefectural decree, finally authorized their arrival at the Charléty stadium the very morning of the match. There were several thousand of them watching their team’s victory down to the wire (2-1), during the 15th day of Ligue 2.

The episode is the latest in a long series of restrictions targeting football fans, whose travel bans or restrictions have been numerous in recent years. Even if the conclusion turned out to be positive for the faithful of the Marine et Blanc thanks to the National Association of Supporters (ANS), the ministerial decree which remained in force nevertheless prohibited the travel of “any person claiming to be a supporter” Bordeaux between Gironde and Île-de-France. The Ultramarines, the main group of supporters, did not make the trip.

These restrictions were motivated by “a real and serious risk of clashes between supporters of the two clubs”and this while the only Paris FC-Bordeaux in recent history, contested in September 2022, took place smoothly.

“Supporters not criminals”

“This evening [samedi]it was so dangerous that the Parisian supporters made a banner to support us”teases Joris, a Bordeaux supporter present in the parking lot, a section dedicated to fans of the away team.

“The judge of the Administrative Court suspended him saying that there were no repeated and recent serious incidentsdetails Pierre Barthélémy, lawyer for the ANS.” How, then, can we explain such a difference between the events described in the decrees and the facts? “Often incidents are mentioned with only the date and matchcontinues the lawyer. Sometimes we realize that when a fan is controlled with cannabis for personal consumption, it becomes a match referenced as an incident because of the visiting fans.”.

Joris, used to traveling across France to support the Girondins, has gotten used to it. “I am a citizen who pays my taxes, who works, who respects the lawindicates the latter. And on weekends, I’m considered a sub-citizen.” This observation is shared by many supporters from all sides, united behind the slogan “Supporters not criminals”.

Parking, a sometimes neglected safety tool

Like many, Joris has already been confronted with orders published 48 hours before the meeting, leading to an automatic closure of the visitor parking lot. Two solutions are then available to supporters: change their mind despite the travel or even accommodation costs already agreed, or defy the ban and camouflage themselves among the local public. “In a park, the supporters are with the security of their clubnotes Aymeric, member of the Marine et Blanc Île-de-France group. When prefectures and ministries close them, they deprive themselves of a security tool.”

If he wasn’t hit because “dressed neutrally in the side stand”, this Bordeaux supporter based near Versailles witnessed the clashes between his acolytes and Ajaccio fans, during a match in Corsica in mid-August. Without a security barrier, the Girondins were violently attacked after they sang songs in praise of their team. Ten minor injuries (eight from Bordeaux and two stewards) were then recorded.

OM-OL’s recent history doesn’t help

Other incidents involving visiting supporters have been noted this season in Marseille, on the sidelines of the match ultimately postponed against Olympique Lyonnais. A bus of OL supporters had been stoned, and the behavior of certain members of the visitor park, accused of racist provocations, had been castigated. “I have the feeling that after these incidents, Gérald Darmanin is in absolute panic over [les matchs disputés à] Marseille and Parissays lawyer Pierre Barthélémy.

A few days before these incidents, the Minister of the Interior and his counterpart for Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, had asked the prefects to limit these travel bans. “I think that these circulars are written in the ministries, by specialists in public order for sporting events, but that the ministers themselves are not aware of them”, explains Pierre Barthélémy. And the lawyer continued: “We used this circular in our request, and in defense, the Minister of the Interior writes that it means nothing!”

However, this administrative imbroglio is part of a national context of “drastic drop in the number of travel bans”believes Pierre Barthélémy. “But we remain in a country which is hosting the Olympic Games in a few months and is not able to welcome supporters from Bordeaux to Paris!”Joris laughs yellow.