Following his team’s 2-1 defeat against Auxerre, Saint-Etienne fans violently stormed the pitch at the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium on Sunday night, unleashing a disturbing wave of violence.
Saint-Etienne played at home and their defeat condemns them to drop to the second division. The fans of the legendary French team transformed the historic defeat into a terrifying spectacle: using firecrackers, fumigants, homemade hand grenades, destroying fences and facilities… staging a disturbing ‘number’ on the football field, the stadium and the surrounding area.
Given the disturbing spread of violence, outside the soccer field, the regional prefect, representative of the State, gave the order for “expedited intervention” of the riot forces.
Several hundred riot police, equipped with water cannons and tear gas, intervened very quickly. Faced with the resistance of the rioters, the riot police were “forced” to take over all the stadium facilities, stands, changing rooms, showers, sports facilities.
Twenty-four hours after the great crisis and outbursts of vandalism, at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, before the start of the match that gave Real Madrid the historic victory against Liverpool, a second crisis of violence, in Saint-Etienne , confirms the underlying crisis that the “periphery” of French football is experiencing.
For about a year now, outbreaks of violence have been recurrent, of very diverse origins, not always “multicultural.”
At the beginning of this same month of May, the president of the French Football Federation (FFF) addressed a severe letter / report to the presidents of clubs, referees and players, insisting on the “disturbing seriousness” of the recurrent outbreaks of violence.
