Sébastien Louis believes that France has “a serious problem” with the management of supporters.
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“There were flaws in the police and security system”, pointed out Sunday May 26 on franceinfo Sébastien Louis, historian and specialist in radical supporters in Europe, the day after the violent clashes between supporters of Olympique Lyonnais and Paris Saint-Germain. The events took place at a toll booth on the A1 motorway, before the Coupe de France final in Lille. A bus was set on fire and 30 supporters, as well as eight police officers, were lightly injured on Saturday evening.
This match was classified as very high risk and the authorities had nevertheless tried to minimize the risks of meetings between supporters of the two clubs. “For security reasons, there were two different routes, the supporters had to travel at different times and this is something completely normal”recalled Sébastien Louis.
But according to the account of the prefect of the North, Bertrand Gaume, a convoy of supporters, escorted by the police, crossed paths with those of opposing supporters, “arrived at the wrong place” And “bad timing”at the Fresnes-lès-Montauban toll (Pas-de-Calais), a few dozen kilometers from Lille. “How is it that two Lyon buses can travel at the same time as the Paris buses?”, questions the supporterism specialist. The police should have been “more vigilant”especially since“it is quite easy to secure a section of motorway”according to him.
“In France, we have a serious problem” with the management of the supporters, he assured. According to him, this is the fault of the completely repressive policy which ends up compromising the ability of the authorities to organize the flow of fans during major meetings. “We are more into repression than prevention”he said. “We use drones, we use more means to control sports crowds, however, incidents continue”supported Sébastien Louis. “We would still have to ask questions from the authorities”he added.