December 2, 2023. Football plunges into chaos. In Nantes. It is not the meeting that remains in the memories despite the victory of the Canaries (1-0). From this evening, we only remember the images of pure, blind, incomprehensible violence. And the images of a young 31-year-old father, dead on the asphalt a stone's throw from the Beaujoire stadium and the Loire stand, of which Maxime Leroy had been a figure for around ten years. A VTC driver indicted for murder and extortion, Christopher Volcime, now awaits his fate behind bars. For two stabbings carried out in a context of extreme tensions.
The tragic event took place before the match against OGC Nice. However, a prefectural decree governs the movement of Riviera supporters, never welcome in Nantes due to old antagonisms. Some are waiting in Ancenis for a bus which must be accompanied by the police. When others, arriving by plane, stroll around town earlier in the day. These people decide to go to the stadium by VTC. The convoy of two vans and six sedans leaves the Cours des Cinquante Otages. Thirty aficionados Nice on board. No one shows their colors ostentatiously.
“I took the lead in the procession in a good atmosphere, everything was going well,” said David Tan, spokesperson for Nantes VTCs, at the time. Is it the police or a navigation application that directs vehicles towards the avenue de la gare de Saint-Joseph? A year later, the versions continue to vary on this point. This is not a detail because the convoy passes a few meters from Saint-Georges, the hideout of the ultras of the Loire Brigade. In front of the VTC drivers,…
