“Players cannot play with fear in their stomachs”, warns Philippe Piat, co-president of the players’ union

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After a first meeting on Tuesday 23 November at the Ministry of the Interior between the government and representatives of French football, a period of fifteen days was given to propose solutions in order to resolve the problems of violence in the stadiums since the start of the Ligue 1 season.

Philippe Piat, co-president of the National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP), who participated in the Place Beauveau meeting, reacted for franceinfo: sport, to this first contact between the different parties.

What did you think of the meeting?

Philippe Piat: The meeting was well spent. The dialogue was constructive and cordial. What came out was that we identified the problems and; everyone around the table wanted to get out of this situation. Each with their responsibilities, the representatives of football and of the State, want to move forward to do better than what has happened so far, and to find solutions.

Were all the actors going in the same direction?

Yes, we, the football managers, had, if not solutions, similar observations and therefore an apparent unity. On the side of the Ministry of the Interior, as well as on the side of the Minister for Sports and the Minister of Justice, the members of the government are in a logic of finding solutions that take into account the real situation on the ground.

Four lines of thought were discussed: stadium ban, security in the enclosures, security of access to the stadium and a better definition of the roles of each. In your opinion, were these the right topics to tackle and should they be broadened further?

These tracks mentioned are a first overview, an observation of the situation, to then imagine how to get out of the current situation. Nothing specific, on what will be retained, has been announced. Beyond these four tracks, yes there are others, which were also mentioned during the meeting, such as the safety of the players.

Indeed, players cannot go and play a game with fear in their stomachs, wondering what could happen to them.

“Other recommendations were also cited, such as those to put back nets and display messages on large stadium screens reminding us that any unannounced interventions by spectators can lead to prison sentences and significant fines.”

Philippe Piat, co-president of the UNFP

to franceinfo: sport

Gérald Darmanin has given 15 days to make proposals to the Prime Minister and the governing bodies. Is this sufficient time?

Yes, as long as the problems have been clearly identified. Now it is the responsibility of football and the public authorities to find legal or regulatory answers.

What do you hope for after these 15 days? That the first decisions be taken and implemented, for example?

Yes, we are tired of seeing matches where 50,000 spectators are stopped because of ten troublemakers. We must stop this, as these incidents become more and more recurrent.

For you, what are the most urgent measures to put in place?

For us, it’s player protection. It is necessary to prevent spectators from throwing objects at players and entering the lawn. Above all, and everyone was unanimous, the penalties must be much higher and the stadium bans must be clearly identified. Because it turned out that those who are banned from the stadium are not checked and return to the stadium despite the ban.

It is also necessary to define what is the separation between the responsibilities of the clubs compared to those of the public authorities, and therefore to have a better visibility of the chain of command, to know where it begins and where it ends.

Would you like the sanctions to be more localized against troublemakers and not on clubs?

Taking points away from teams because of troublemakers is not an adequate solution because ultimately a team with fewer points may not qualify for the Champions League. This means that indirectly there are repercussions on the players, when it is not their fault. It is not normal that they are the ones who suffer the consequences.

That’s why we want to focus a little more on the troublemakers, know who is responsible for what, and how we can really improve the penalties so that the troublemakers think twice before they go to it. ‘act.

In the next two weeks, will you be meeting with the other football representatives in order to jointly propose solutions?

I think yes. We will certainly come together to analyze the discussions from Tuesday’s meeting, to try to find the best way to give answers to the problems identified.


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