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Racist insults, monkey expressions, Nazi salutes… when the extreme right corrupts the stands of football supportersRacist insults, monkey expressions, Nazi salutes… when the extreme right corrupts the stands of football supporters
Racist insults, monkey expressions, Nazi salutes… when the far right corrupts the stands of football supporters
(ADDITIONAL INVESTIGATION / FRANCE 2)
This extract from “Additional investigation” looks back at the evening of October 29, 2023 at the Marseille Vélodrome, where Lyon supporters were filmed performing monkey expressions and Nazi salutes during a meeting between OL and OM. Behind these hooligans, a small far-right group.
October 29, 2023, Marseille Vélodrome: OM hosts OL, and the evening started badly… On the journey, several buses of Lyon supporters were stoned, coach Fabio Grosso found his face bleeding. ..
Testifying to the extreme tension reigning in the stands before the start of the match, which was ultimately postponed, videos circulated on social networks. In the stand reserved for Lyon visitors, some are filmed by Marseille supporters giving them monkey expressions or Nazi salutes.
Among the French flags, we also saw a banner appear, bearing the inscription “Mezza Lyon”. This is the name of a small group of several dozen neo-Nazis. Some of its members even went to honor Mussolini’s grave with their flag adorned with a “Totenkopf” (the emblematic skull and crossbones of the Waffen-SS divisions)… On social networks, we find another photo of a banner at the explicit slogan: “Refugees not welcome” (“Refugees are not welcome”), deployed on a quay in Lyon, above a flag of the “Mezza”.
How can we explain that openly racist behavior and Nazi salutes are possible in stadiums? How can far-right hooligans mix so easily with supporters? Not always identifiable among the 600 visitors from Lyon present at the Vélodrome, they have their little schemes to cover their tracks. One of them is to change discreetly once the offense has been committed. On the stadium’s video surveillance images, for example, we see a supporter, with a bucket hat and dark glasses, imitating a monkey. A few moments later, he isolates himself to remove his headgear, his glasses, and put on a black sweater. Another, filmed at the entrance to the stadium in a black tracksuit, is spotted putting on a balaclava to perform Nazi salutes. Shortly after, we find him bareheaded, in jeans and a t-shirt…
Techniques that work since, after analysis of video surveillance images, only two members of Mezza Lyon were formally recognized by the police. Tried in January 2024 by the Marseille court, they were found guilty of provoking hatred for having brandished the flag of their small neo-Nazi group, sentenced to prison terms (six and four months, convertible with electronic bracelet) and banned from stadiums for three years. But due to lack of sufficient evidence, they were released for the monkey cries and the Nazi salutes…
Extract from “Hooligans: bringing football back to reason!”, a document to be seen in “Additional investigation” on June 13, 2024.
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