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Regulating Football-Related Violence in France

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Legal Responses to Football Hooliganism in Europe

Part of the book series: ASSER International Sports Law Series ((ASSER))

Abstract

Due to the low profile of football crowd disorder until the mid-2000s, counter-hooliganism measures remained event-linked rather than embedded in a global strategy. Present legal provisions and police tactics are heavily influenced by risk-management policies, thereby producing multifold confusion. This confusion is visible in terms of value ranking: protection of human life, property, and public order tends to be guaranteed at the expense of the rule of law. In terms of objectives to be reached: ‘law and order’ tends to be established at the expense of the democratic legal order. Finally in terms of the means to achieve these objectives, counter-hooliganism tends to rest upon institutionalisation of control and direct punishment of deviance.

Anastassia Tsoukala is Associate Professor, University Paris 11, Faculty of Sport Sciences; Senior researcher, GEPECS, University Paris 5-Sorbonne.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dietschy 2010.

  2. 2.

    Tsoukala 2009a, p. 31.

  3. 3.

    Ehrenberg 1984; Bromberger 1984.

  4. 4.

    Tsoukala 1995, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2009a, b, 2011a, b, 2013.

  5. 5.

    Simon 2008; Hourcade 2010; Lestrelin 2012; Otero 2012.

  6. 6.

    Law 93-1282 of 6 December 1993 in relation to the safety of sporting events.

  7. 7.

    Garland 1985.

  8. 8.

    Dubet and Lapeyronnie 1992; Mucchielli 2001; Bonelli 2007, 2008.

  9. 9.

    Bambuck 1990, pp. 9–10.

  10. 10.

    Paillou 1990, pp. 31–40.

  11. 11.

    In its early phase, football crowd disorder was an issue for young fans: Mignon 1998, p. 220.

  12. 12.

    Chatard 1990, pp. 42–43.

  13. 13.

    Idem, pp. 43–45.

  14. 14.

    Bonelli 2001, 2008, p. 383 f.

  15. 15.

    For example: consuming alcohol, introducing dangerous objects into a stadium, invading the pitch, inciting hate and violence, racist behaviour.

  16. 16.

    Armstrong and Giulianotti 1998.

  17. 17.

    Tsoukala 2011a, p. 602.

  18. 18.

    Bigo 1996.

  19. 19.

    Castel 2003; Bauman 2007; Young 2007.

  20. 20.

    The note 7386/98 ENFOPOL 45 was sent from the Presidency of the Council to a Cooperation Group of experts on public order to prepare an expert’s meeting on public order and conflict management to be held in Brussels on 15 April 1998.

  21. 21.

    Council of the EU 1998, 3.1.

  22. 22.

    Tsoukala 2009a, p. 108.

  23. 23.

    Council of the EU 1998, 3.2.

  24. 24.

    Council of the EU, 1997.

  25. 25.

    Council of the EU 2002b.

  26. 26.

    For a thorough analysis of relevant EU legislation: Tsoukala 2009a, p. 105 f., 2011b.

  27. 27.

    Law 2006-64, Artcle 31.

  28. 28.

    Mucchielli and Le Goaziou 2006.

  29. 29.

    Assemblée Nationale, Report No 396.

  30. 30.

    Circular INT/D/06/00077/C.

  31. 31.

    Circular INT/D/07/00089/C.

  32. 32.

    Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) 2012, p. 9.

  33. 33.

    Law 2006-64, Article 31.

  34. 34.

    Le Monde 2010a.

  35. 35.

    Assemblée Nationale, Report No. 396.

  36. 36.

    Sénat, Report n° 467, p. 36.

  37. 37.

    Law 2010-201, Article 10.

  38. 38.

    Ibid., Article 10 1c.

  39. 39.

    Law 2011-267, Article 61.

  40. 40.

    Ligue de Footbal Professionnel 2011, p. 49.

  41. 41.

    ANBB was punished for unfurling an offensive banner in the stands during a match at the Stade de France stadium on 29 March 2008.

  42. 42.

    Namely several violent clashes between members of the club and the police or rival teams’ supporters that had taken place between 2006 and 2008.

  43. 43.

    CE, 25 July 2008, Appl. n° 315723.

  44. 44.

    Ruling 5th Section 22 February 2011, Association Nouvelle des Boulogne Boys v. France, App. no 6468/09. The applicant association complained that, under Article 6 1 and 3 (right to a fair hearing) of the European Convention on Human Rights, it had not had the time or the wherewithal to prepare its defence. It also alleged that insufficient reasoning had been given for the dissolution, and complained, under Article 11, of interference with its freedom of association. Regarding the right to a fair hearing, the Court ruled that the criminal aspect of Article 6 was not applicable in this case because the proceedings did not concern a ‘criminal charge’. Regarding freedom of association, the Court ruled that the dissolution measure constituted an interference with the applicant’s right to freedom of association which was prescribed by the French Sporting Code and which pursued the legitimate aim of preventing disorder or crime.

  45. 45.

    Les Authentiks and Supras Auteuil 91. Dissolution of Parisian football supporters’ clubs went along with disbanding of two fans’ clubs in the South of France: Brigade Sud de Nice (2010) and Butte Paillade 91 (2011).

  46. 46.

    CE, 13 July 2010, App. n° 339257 and 339293.

  47. 47.

    Article L. 332-16-1 of Sports Code.

  48. 48.

    Article L. 332-16-2 of Sports Code.

  49. 49.

    Guaranteed under: Article 2 of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen [DRMC] (confirmed as autonomous freedom by the Constitutional Council: Appl. 99-416 and 99-419 of 9 November 1999); Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights [ECHR]; Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU [CFREU].

  50. 50.

    Guaranteed under: Article 9 of the DRMC; Article 6§2 of the ECHR; Article 48§1 of the CFREU.

  51. 51.

    Guaranteed under: Article 8 of the DRMC (repeated in Article L 111-3 of the Penal Code); Article 7§1 of the ECHR; Article 49 of the CFREU.

  52. 52.

    Introduced by: Constitutional Council, Appl. 86-215 of 3 September 1986; also guaranteed under: Article 49 of the CFREU.

  53. 53.

    Guaranteed under: Articles 2 and 3 of the Protocol n° 4 to the ECHR; Article 45§1 of the CFREU.

  54. 54.

    Cohen 1971; Anderson et al. 1996; Della Porta and Reiter 1998; Armstrong and Giulianotti 1998; Palidda 1999; Stott 2003; Balzacq and Carrera 2006; Fillieule and Della Porta 2006; Stott et al. 2006; Bonelli 2007; Bigo and Tsoukala 2008; Tsoukala 2009a.

  55. 55.

    Trivizas 1980, 1984; Williams 1980; Armstrong and Hobbs 1994; Armstrong and Giulianotti 1998.

  56. 56.

    Tsoukala 2009a, b.

  57. 57.

    Feeley and Simon 1992; Beck 1999; Broadhurst 2000; O’Malley 2000; Lyon 2001; Silver and Miller 2002; Johnston and Shearing 2003; Ericson 2007; Carlen 2008.

  58. 58.

    Geyer 2008; Türk 2009.

  59. 59.

    Council of the EU 2002a, annexe: Chapter 1, Section 2.

  60. 60.

    For example: going regularly to notoriously disorderly sections of the stadium; being member of a violent fans’ group; having been already arrested or convicted for violent acts or alcohol consumption.

  61. 61.

    Ligue de Footbal Professionnel 2012, pp. 7–8.

  62. 62.

    Tsoukala 2013.

  63. 63.

    Communist Party 2011.

  64. 64.

    View expressed to the author by an intelligence officer (Interview: March 2011).

  65. 65.

    From 2008, the Communist Party is part of the Left Front.

  66. 66.

    Its Sport Commission has been active in organising public debates on the issue.

  67. 67.

    Otero 2012, p. 101.

  68. 68.

    Midi libre 2010.

  69. 69.

    Le Monde 2010b.

  70. 70.

    Delmas-Marty 2002, p. 448 f.

  71. 71.

    Constitutional Council, Decision n° 2011-625 DC of 10 March 2011.

  72. 72.

    For an analysis of similar questions regarding UK fans: Pearson 2005; Blackshaw 2005; Stott and Pearson 2006; James and Pearson 2006.

  73. 73.

    Council of the EU 2003, Article 5.

  74. 74.

    Tsoukala 2010.

  75. 75.

    Hourcade 2012.

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  1. University Paris 5, Sorbonne, France

    Anastassia Tsoukala

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  1. Sport Sciences, University of Paris 11, Orsay, France

    Anastassia Tsoukala

  2. Law School, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom

    Geoff Pearson

  3. Faculty of Law, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

    Peter T.M. Coenen

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Tsoukala, A. (2016). Regulating Football-Related Violence in France. In: Tsoukala, A., Pearson, G., Coenen, P. (eds) Legal Responses to Football Hooliganism in Europe. ASSER International Sports Law Series. T.M.C. Asser Press, The Hague. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6265-108-1_5

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