THE FRENCH government has taken the unusual step of dissolving seven official soccer supporters’ associations accused of being linked to violence.
Interior minister Brice Hortefeux’s decision comes amid widespread concern over hooliganism and some two months after a Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) supporter died following a brutal beating by members of a rival PSG fans’ group. Of the seven banned associations – often known as “firms” – five belong to PSG fans and two are linked to the clubs Olympique Lyonnais and OGC Nice.
“These decrees will rid our stadiums of associations made up of so-called football supporters whose behaviour is totally intolerable,” Mr Hortefeux said yesterday, after signing the order with prime minister François Fillon. “We want these people out of the game, allowing genuine fans to feel comfortable coming to matches with their families in a calm and friendly atmosphere.”
As well as the seven associations, more than 650 individual fans have been barred from attending matches. Further legal measures to stem the threat of hooliganism will be considered by the senate in June, including an anti-hooligan curfew, a travel ban for known offenders, forcing banned supporters to attend a local police station during matches, and extending the length of bans.
With names such as La Cosa Nostra de Lyon and Les Authentiks, supporters’ associations wield considerable power in French soccer clubs, and some of the most poisonous rivalries are between different sets of fans from the same club. PSG is the most notorious example, with the divide between the “Boulogne” bloc – known for its members’ far-right views – and the more multi-ethnic “Auteuil” having spilled over into extreme violence in recent seasons.
The government promised to act decisively when, in February, a 37-year-old PSG fan died after weeks in a coma following a savage beating from members of a rival PSG “firm”.
However, the decision to ban the most high-profile groups – coming just days before the final of the French Cup between PSG and Monaco at the Stade de France in Paris – is primarily of symbolic importance. Two years ago, the then interior minister Michèle Alliot-Marie officially dissolved the notorious “Boulogne Boys” group, but the move had little effect. Critics said the ban made it more difficult to monitor the group’s members and that nothing stopped them setting up under a new name.