Paris’ Plan To Curb In-Stadium Violence Will Likely Create Outside-Stadium Violence
Fans of the Paris St. Germaine soccer team are like incorrigible children: Sometimes sending them to their room without dinner and taking away their videogames just isn’t enough. Sometimes, they continue misbehaving, or, in the case of the PSG fans, continue killing people.
Team chairman Robin Leproux unveiled on Tuesday a plan to curb violence among rival groups of hardline supporters which led to the death of two fans in three years.
Starting next season, the club will no longer sell or renew season tickets, opting instead to allocate tickets at random.
Basically, the same way they choose who gets to enter the general admission section of a Justin Bieber concert, is also how they will decide who sits in the Boulogne and Auteuil stands.
One problem with this solution? It’s not keeping the rowdy soccer fan out, it’s just scattering them throughout the stadium. Before, the Kop of Boulogne – “the most notorious stand in French football” – developed over the team’s 40-year history into a mingling piazza of violence, debauchery and political extremism. Y’know, like the Wrigley Field Bleachers, the Cleveland Browns’ Dog Pound or pretty much anywhere inside the Palace of Auburn Hills.
But in the Palace des Princes, there are two sets of fans, the Montagues citizens from Bois de Boulogne and the Capulets citizens from Auteil. And they don’t like each other and choose their shared team to fight about it. And while I’ll refrain from remarking on how superfluous this argument is among any cities in France to have any pride in themselves, I feel compelled to tip my hat to making them share something they both love so dearly.
Okay, Boston. Okay, New York. You can’t play nice? Here: Enjoy rooting for your Soxees for the next century.
But let’s say the Red Sox and Yankees shared a rooting interest and had to share a stadium and a team, would removing the segregation be a good idea? On the one hand, you’ve got a better chance of a Red Sox fan and a Yankee fan sitting elbow-to-elbow. That could end poorly. On the other hand, by randomizing the tickets, you have a lesser chance of large groups of fans gathering in the same spaces, and large groups are really where the trouble happens – not in one-on-one confrontations.
One section of each stand will be reserved for young players from the Paris area and another one for families.
“With two deaths in three years, we have reached a point of no return between the two stands and the situation is getting worse and worse,” Leproux said.
“It’s our duty to react. This plan is vital for the survival of the club.”
The violence between the Boulogne and Auteuil groups of supporters reached its climax on Feb. 28 when a 38-year-old member of the Boulogne Kop was beaten up by Tribune d’Auteuil supporters and died in hospital a few days later.
The problem with this plan is it doesn’t address why the violence is happening, just where. It’s a solid decision to remove families from danger zones, but isn’t it possible that the danger zones will just shift elsewhere? Perhaps expand through the stadium to all points except those designated for families and young players?
In the last three seasons, the team has had to stop selling tickets to away games and play several games in an empty stadium as punishment.
In the end, this rivalry stopped being about soccer and started simply taking place at soccer games. And yes, these games have developed numerous organizations that have perpetrated the violence and breaking up those organizations will be helpful, but realistically, only a little and probably, only for a brief time.
Rearranging the elements inside the stadium might slow the violence, but it won’t stop it. It might even make it burn hotter.
___________________
Photo courtesy of Flickr
Leave a Reply
