December 5 – France’s sports minister has called for “a global and extraordinarily determined response” to violence in football after the death of a Nantes supporter over the weekend.
Amelie Oudea-Castera told a French radio station said preventing fans from traveling to high-risk away matches could form part of the solution.
“For the time being we have to focus on fans’ travels,” she said. “It’s essential that we now return to a less violent situation…we need a global and extraordinarily determined response.”
The Nantes supporter was killed on Saturday following a fight between fans that took place before the club’s 1-0 win over Nice in the latest outbreak of violence to hit the French game this season.
The public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into voluntary manslaughter.
In France, away fans are regularly banned from high risk games such as those pitting together bitter rivals Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille.
A blanket ban would almost certainly be challenged by fans’ groups but Oudea-Castera added: “It’s just not possible that police forces are so overstretched, that private property is destroyed, that buses are stoned and people injured. And now, a death. That’s enough.”
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