Once again, a major popular festival was partly transformed into scenes of violence, damage and clashes. After the Champions League final, images of chaos quickly toured the country.
Paris was particularly affected, but incidents also affected other French cities, from Lyon to Marseille, including Lille, Nantes, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Toulouse.
The most worrying thing is undoubtedly that these scenes no longer surprise anyone. Over the years, we have gotten used to these excesses.
As if any major sporting victory must inevitably be accompanied by urban violence. As if these behaviors were inevitable. They are not.
The second mistake would be to fall into confusion. The perpetrators of this violence do not represent a club, nor the supporters, nor the youth, nor territories as a whole. They come from different backgrounds and backgrounds.
Recent events have shown a mix of populations from the Paris suburbs but also from many French cities. Reducing these facts to an opposition between “neighborhoods” and “the rest of society” would be a dead end.
The question is therefore not to designate collective culprits, but to understand a phenomenon which weakens our ability to live together.
The vast majority of supporters have only one ambition: to share a moment of collective joy. But certain sporting gatherings sometimes become the terrain of other logics: confrontation, challenge to authority, search for visibility or expression of frustrations which go far beyond the framework of football.
This violence firstly penalizes the residents themselves, traders, transport users and families who simply wish to take part in a moment of celebration.
They also fuel stigmatizing discourses that unfairly affect thousands of people who have nothing to do with these behaviors.
French specificity
However, France must also question what sets it apart from many other European countries. In Spain, Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands, major sporting victories sometimes give rise to incidents, but rarely on such a territorial scale or in such a repeated manner.
Hundreds of thousands of people can celebrate a title in the streets of Madrid, Lisbon or Munich without violence becoming the main topic the next day.
The difference does not lie only in the police system. It is also due to different celebration cultures, the organization of gatherings, the role of sports associations and the bond of trust between institutions and citizens.
Prevent violence
The answer must be twofold: immediate and long term.
In the immediate future, the Republic must demonstrate firmness. Identified perpetrators of violence must be arrested, judged quickly and punished in a visible and exemplary manner. The certainty of the sanction is essential.
A society that allows a feeling of impunity to take hold runs the risk of seeing the same scenes repeat themselves.
But firmness alone will not be enough. For several years, we have gradually weakened the spaces which make it possible to support, supervise and socialize a part of the youth: associations, sports clubs, popular education, mediation, field educators. However, these actors play an irreplaceable role.
The sustainable response therefore requires education, prevention and investment in the territories. It involves strengthening associations, supporting local actors, promoting successes and recreating spaces where everyone can find their place.
It also involves another conception of the celebration. Major sporting events must be prepared in advance with communities, clubs, supporters, associations and residents.
Supervise sporting celebrations
A popular celebration cannot be improvised: it must be organized. We must create secure, open and attractive party spaces where collective joy can be expressed without being taken over by violence.
This question becomes all the more important as the next major international sporting events approach.
The World Cup will be a major moment of gathering, with matches which could be particularly sensitive due to their emotional charge and their audience. We cannot wait for the next event to discover, once again, the same difficulties.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games showed that a major event could be organized in a largely controlled climate. Major rugby competitions also remind us that sporting passion can be expressed without major excesses.
This should lead us to ask an essential question: why do certain football-related celebrations crystallize more tensions?
Protecting our ability to live together
Football itself is not the problem. It is a fantastic vector of social connection. But its exceptional popular power also makes it a revealer of the tensions that run through our society.
The issue therefore goes far beyond sport. It affects our collective capacity to live together.
We must move away from simplistic answers: neither denial of violence, nor stigmatization of entire populations. You need authority, but also prevention. Sanction, but also transmission.
To refuse violence is to refuse fatality. France has the means to make these major sporting events moments of pride, sharing and national unity.
As long as you prepare for these moments with the seriousness they deserve.
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