“I’m not sure this will solve anything in the long run.”, reacted Monday, December 27 on franceinfo Vincent Duluc, major reporter for the newspaper L’Equipe, after the sanctions imposed by the French Football Federation on Paris-FC and Olympique Lyonnais. The two teams are eliminated from the Coupe de France football after the incidents in the stands that occurred during their 32nd final. OL are also suspended from the competition from 2022-23 and will be deprived of their traveling supporters until the end of the season.
For Vincent Duluc, excesses are born “the poor pedagogy of collective sanctions”. According to him, “the authorities of football feel obliged to have collective sanctions at the height of the emotion of the government”. He estimates that “the real task, which belongs to both the football world and the political world, is to pacify the stands”. Vincent Duluc also judges “completely stupid” the tonnage of 5,000 people in the outer stands of the stadiums. “A gauge of one-third of the seats in a stadium would have been something much more rational.”
Franceinfo: Is punishing players, clubs and supporters fair?
Vincent Duluc: This is the real debate. It is a debate which arises from the weak pedagogy of collective sanctions which do not work. And indeed, for the moment, the only logic that exists is to make them more and more severe, but under pressure from the government. It is not the sports bodies which, by themselves, have moved the cursor since the start of the season.
The problem is that case law is not at all held, that the same incidents took place during the Angers-Marseille match, then during the Lens-Lille match, which the match at the time had resumed, which ‘it was not given lost. But there, the Coupe de France match in Charléty took place the day after an interministerial meeting. And since then, the football authorities feel obliged to have collective sanctions at the height of the emotion of the government. But I’m not sure that will solve anything in the long run. The only solution are individual sanctions.
Are we not entering an infernal circle?
Ideally, it stops right away. The state must still help football and not just by moving in this way and asking for spectacular collective sanctions to show that something is done. The state must help football by creating, in particular, fines and a legislative device which gives arms to football authorities and clubs to individually prosecute these supporters and remove them from the stadium a little longer. In France, it’s limited to five years of stadium ban, while in England, it’s ten years. The entire framework for these limitations is still too weak.
The solution is to get the culprits out of the stadiums, but certainly not after a match has been interrupted by a throwing of a water bottle, to ban water bottles in a stadium. “
Vincent Duluc, senior reporter for L’Equipe newspaperto franceinfo
This is not a solution. That is a stopgap. It is a vaguely demagogic and punctual sanction. But the real task, which belongs to both the football world and the political world, is to pacify the stands.
Do the sanctions against OL seem justified to you?
It’s an annus horribilis for Olympique Lyonnais. The club is 14th in Ligue 1. It is eliminated from the Coupe de France on a green carpet. He has already lost a point in the championship on the green carpet. He lost all the revenue for the match against Marseille. He will lose, because of the gauge, the recipe for the match against Paris and the recipe for the match against Saint-Etienne, a loss over these three matches of the order of 12 to 15 million euros. And he will not have any supporters at all until the end of the season away from home. So it’s a pretty dark year.
But at least I find that since the Charléty incidents, the club has behaved quite well. They only communicated the individual sanctions they had taken against their own supporters. Even today, after the sanctions, they have decided not to communicate, not to complain. I think this is a good way to approach these sanctions. A good part of these sanctions are deserved. Another part is a little less so. Because case law has hit Olympique Lyonnais harder than other clubs. But because it was the third or fourth such incident and we had to set an example.
“Unfortunately for the Lyonnais, it is they who are asked to set an example. It is they who will pay a little for the others.”
Vincent Duluc, senior reporter for the newspaper L’Equipeto franceinfo
The stands will ring hollow. To fight against the progression of Covid-19, the government has decided to set a gauge of 5,000 people outdoors. Does this sound acceptable to you?
It’s completely stupid to let 5,000 people go into a stadium of 5,000 people and limit a stadium that could have 60,000 to 5,000 people. It’s stupid to say that in a stadium all the seats are going to be. occupied, and that in another, one place in twelve will be occupied. It is very difficult to make people understand that this decision has an educational meaning.
In this case, this decision is irrelevant. So I know that it is based in particular on the desire to relieve public transport congestion as we approach the stadiums. But until proven guilty, there are no gauges in the subways or in the trains. So, it really is a decision which is a little bit surprising. I think a gauge of one third of the seats in a stadium would have been something much more rational.