It's a highly anticipated match. Some have dreamed of it since close ten years old. FC Rouen welcomes Quevilly-Rouen Métropole to the Diochon stadium this Friday, December 6 in the evening. A match placed under surveillance, in particular for fear of excesses from supporters. Approximately 7,500 Red Devils supporters will be present, in addition to 200 Queville supporters. A match classified as risky, at level 1, the lowest on a scale of 4, by the National Directorate for the Fight against Hooliganism, due to a “flux important de supporters”. The Seine-Maritime prefecture has therefore taken precautions, reducing to 200 the number of QRM supporters authorized in the stadium, out of the approximately 700 places in the Diochon visitor parking lot.
These supporters who will have to follow a particular route to go to a stadium where they have their habits. They will have to meet in a nearby parking lot before being escorted on foot by the police. They will thus enter a security perimeter which, normally, will be prohibited to them. It's a funny arrest taken by the prefecture: lQRM supporters are prohibited, Friday afternoon and until 11:30 p.m., from being within a fairly large perimeter around their own Diochon stadium, located in Petit-Quevillytheir own commune. They must also, at the end of the match, be escorted back to the same parking lot.
“Numerous excesses and incidents noted”
These safety precautions are taken, according to the prefecture decree, due in particular to the configuration of the stadium, under construction, which does not allow an independent arrival in safety, but also to the “many overflows and incidents observed”during certain FC Rouen matches this season. The prefecture cites the meeting between the FCR and Orléanson August 30, where incidents broke out between around a hundred Rouen Fans, and around sixty Orléans supporters of the Le Havre ultras Drouguis and Barbarians, injuring two police officers in the process. Several incidents (violence, refusal of double palpation) were also noted during FCR – Sochauxon October 23. According to the prefecture, finally, a third match posed a problem, against Boulogne. “Ahead of the match, the buses of visiting supporters were escorted by the police forces who deployed a device to protect them upon their arrival at the stadium; 90 Rouen ultras were gathered in front of the visitors' entrance; following the deployment of the police forces and the checks authorized at the request of the Prosecutor, the majority of them took refuge in the nearby bar and refused to attend the match; the police force had to be maintained until the end of the match; the meeting in order to once again protect visiting supporters and their vehicles upon departure.” According to Rouen Fans, on the contrary “the police simply surrounded a bar to prevent its occupants from leaving […]We were prevented from going to the stadium.” Finally, the decree of course cites the tensions between the two clubs, since their failed mergernine years ago.
Beyond this decree, the Prefect of Seine-Maritime also sanctioned nine FC Rouen supporters administratively banned from stadiums for a period of six months“due to violence committed against other supporters or the police”.
FC Rouen will therefore be under surveillanceand the club fears excesses, which could lead to sanctions during the 32nd final of the Coupe de France, in this same stadium, against Lille. Coach Régis Brouard and defender Valentin Sanson delivered a calming message at a press conference this Wednesday, saying they trusted the supporters to create a good atmosphere, without generating excesses potentially detrimental for the future.
