A handshake there, a few words here, Gil Avérous, the Minister of Sports, Youth and Community Life, offered himself a little immersion in the world of rugby this Sunday evening at the Jean-Bouin stadium during the derby between Stade Français and Racing 92. One of the points of passage on his stadium tour which began Friday in Troyes during the Ligue 2 football match against Grenoble.
“It’s important to come here in contact with the supporters,” he said before taking his place in the stands alongside Florian Grill, president of the FFR. The objective is to change the relations between the Government and the supporters, to listen to them, to go see them on site, to hear their demands in order to manage the conflict situations that we can see every week -ends in the stadiums, to try to respond to the abuses and put an end to them. The speech is firm. We will not allow verbal or physical violence to continue. »
In front of the good-natured audience of a dispassionate Top 14 derby, the exchanges and dialogue flowed naturally. But what will it be elsewhere? Like at the Parc des Princes, for example, where homophobic chants were heard on October 20 against Strasbourg in Ligue 1, then a pro-Palestine tifo deployed on November 6 before the Champions League match against Atlético de Madrid . “I will go to all the stadiums,” insisted the minister. For four weeks at a sustained pace then I will continue throughout the year, spacing out the visits. We won’t give up. We often talk about PSG, but I cite PSG as an example. He takes individual sanctions and commercial match bans each time a troublemaker is spotted and identified. No one is safe from deviance. » Meetings have already taken place between the club and the ministry.
Gil Avérous also launched an appeal to football supporters. “I tell them: we can help you,” he continued. I am not for systematically banning the movement of supporters but if there is abnormal, deviant or violent behavior, it will be indefensible. »
