Funny atmosphere this Sunday morning, January 19, in the François-Mitterrand gymnasium in Pessac, in the suburbs of Bordeaux. It's basketball day, but you'd hear a pin drop. Only the players' footsteps, the tap tap of the ball and the coaches' instructions resonate. It looks like training, but it is an official match of the departmental basketball championship, U18 category, between Pessac basketball and the Audenge-Biganos-Lanton (ABL) association, from the Arcachon basin. In these generally noisy stands, there were only three spectators. The only three mothers of players who were allowed into the gym.
For the first time in its history, the Gironde departmental basketball committee organized an “empty stands” operation. A way to fight against public incivility, which tends to multiply. Parents, companions, supporters, all regulars in the stands have been asked to stay at home. “We are not a sport for thugs, but there are signals that light up,” explains Jean-Luc Dubos, president of the committee.
“We had to take up the subject”
Insults to the referee, mockery, referees expected at the end of the matches, various disturbances, until the invasion of the pitch, last year for a U18 women's match. “We had to take up the subject because there have been several excesses, even if it has nothing to do with what is happening in football,” continues the president. In Gironde, a third of disciplinary cases are linked to incidents from spectators.
“There is a social problem: today everyone opens their mouth for nothing! The problem is when everyone becomes a referee. However, everyone must stay in their place: I am a player I must remain a player, I am a coach I must remain a coach, I am a parent I must remain a parent,” recalls Sébastien Farat, assistant coach at the ABL agreement.
-“It’s ridiculous”
At Pessac Basket, we take the matter seriously. “We brief the children and parents before the matches, we tell them what they can and cannot do. It even happened to me to stop a match to rebuke parents who were contesting. I tell them live ''that can't be done'', that by shouting at the referees they are adding stress to the children. Usually it's understood straight away. At first, we were mixed about this operation, but ultimately we had a good day, even if it was a little sad without the atmosphere. The young people are listening, there is less stress for the children, there is not this climate where the parents are shouting, the players are focused on what is asked of them, they play liberated and without pressure” declares Trystan Villeger, sports manager of the club.
Those who walk the floor are more measured. Player at Pessac, Ryan El Tayeb regrets the exclusion of parents: “It's ridiculous, when we see how parents are involved in the life of the club, they accompany us everywhere, it's a real shame “. On the ABL side, No. 4 Kilian Dubouil finds that “no one in the stands, it’s weird, but it’s the only way to fight”. His mother Eva, one of the three spectators of the day, says she is “not against, but not for the empty stands operation either. It’s just a shame it’s come to this.”
