Controlling football-related violence in France: law and order versus the rule of law

Abstract

This paper seeks to highlight the tension between implementing law and order and respecting rule of law in French football stadiums. It shows that, due to low football crowd disorder and to government focus on disadvantaged suburbs as key loci of social unrest, French counter-hooliganism remained until recently event-linked rather than embedded in a global strategy. Present legal provisions and police measures are heavily influenced by risk management policies, thereby leading to many different confusions in terms of value ranking, objectives to be reached, and means to achieve these objectives.

Notes

¹ Tsoukala, Football Hooliganism, 92–3.

² Ehrenberg, ‘Le football’; Ehrenberg, Le culte de la performance; Bromberger, ‘L'Olympique de Marseille’; Bromberger, Le match de football.

³ Tsoukala, Sport et violence; Tsoukala, ‘Vers une homognéisation’.

⁴ Law 93–1282 of 6 December 1993 on Security at Sporting Events. OJ no. 283, 7 December 1993.

⁵ See, for example, Becker, Outsiders; Erikson, Wayward Puritans; Cohen, Folk Devils; Hall et al., Policing the Crisis; Cohen, Visions of Social Control; Jenkins, Intimate Enemies; Goode and Ben-Yehuda, Moral Panics. The Social Control; Thompson, Moral Panics; Ungar, ‘Moral Panic Versus the Risk Society’; Tsoukala, ‘Boundary-Creating Processes’; Critcher, ‘Widening the Focus’; Young, ‘Moral Panic. Its Origins’; Tsoukala, ‘Timing Dangerousness’.

⁶ See, for example, Cohen, Images of Deviance; Anderson et al., Policing the European Union; Della Porta and Reiter, Policing Protest; Palidda, ‘Polizia e immigrati’; Armstrong and Giulianotti, ‘From Another Angle’; Laurence, The Politics of Force; Stott, ‘ Police Expectations’; Balzacq and Carrera, Security Versus Freedom; Fillieule and Della Porta, Police et manifestants; Stott et al., Policing, Crowd Dynamics; Bonelli, ‘Policing the Youth’; Bigo and Tsoukala, Terror, Insecurity and Liberty; Tsoukala, Football Hooliganism.

⁷ Tsoukala, Football Hooliganism; Tsoukala, ‘Combating Football Crowd Disorder’; Tsoukala, ‘Risk-Focused Security Policies’.

⁸ See, for example, Feeley and Simon, ‘New Penology’; Beck, World Risk Society, ‘Terrorist Threat’; Broadhurst, ‘Criminal Careers’; O'Malley, ‘Risk Societies’; Lyon, Surveillance Society; Silver and Miller ‘A Cautionary Note’; Johnston and Shearing, Governing Security; Ericson, Crime in an Insecure World; Carlen, Imaginary Penalities.

⁹ Gastaut, Le m tissage par le foot.

¹⁰ Mucchielli, Violences et ins curit ; Bonelli, La France a peur.

¹¹ Bonelli, ‘Les Renseignements gnraux’; Bonelli, La France a peur, 383f.

¹² Tsoukala, Football Hooliganism, 125f.

¹³ Castel, L'ins curit sociale; Bauman, Liquid Times; Young, The Vertigo.

¹⁴ The turning point is arguably marked in 1997: Council of the EU, Joint Action of 26 May 1997.

¹⁵ Urban riots started on 27 October 2005 in the Parisian suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. They rapidly expanded in hundreds of towns throughout the Parisian region and the rest of the country. A state of emergency was declared on 8 November 2005. It was lifted on 3 January 2006. For a thorough analysis of the events, see Mucchielli and Le Goaziou, Quand les banlieues br lent.

¹⁶ Law 2006-64 of 23 January 2006 on the Fight against Terrorism, Internal Security Issues and Border Controls. OJ no. 20, 24 January 2006, Art. 31.

¹⁷ Assemble Nationale. Report No 396 on the Implementation of Law No. 2006-784 of 5 July 2006 on the Prevention of Violence at Sporting Events, 7 November 2007..

¹⁸ Circular INT/D/06/00077/C on the Implementation of Administrative Football Banning Orders.

¹⁹ Circular INT/D/07/00089/C on the Implementation of Administrative Football Banning Orders.

²⁰ ‘PSG: les 249 supporters interpells interdits de stade’. Le Monde, August 10, 2010..

²¹ Law 2006-64 of 23 January 2006 on the Fight against Terrorism, Internal Security Issues and Border Controls. OJ no. 20, 24 January 2006, Art. 31.

²² Assemble Nationale. Report No 396 on the Implementation of Law No. 2006-784 of 5 July 2006 on the Prevention of Violence at Sporting Events, 7 November 2007.

²³ Sénat, Faut-il avoir peur? 36.

²⁴ Law 2010-201 of 2 March 2010 on the Fight against Violent Groups and the Protection of Certain Persons Working in the Public Sector. OJ no. 0052, 3 March 2010, Art. 10.

²⁵ Ibid. Art. 10, Section 1c.

²⁶ Law 2011-267 of 14 March 2011 on Internal Security. OJ no. 0062, 15 March 2011, Art. 61.

²⁷ For example, Italy and Belgium.

²⁸ Communist Party. ‘Plutt que cibler les hooligans, le gouvernement criminalise tous les supporters’. Press Release, February 28, 2011.

²⁹ Law 2006-784 of 5 July 2006 on the Prevention of Violence at Sporting Events. OJ no. 155, 6 July 2006, Art. 3.

³⁰ Law 2011-267 of 14 March 2011 on Internal Security. OJ no. 0062, 15 March 2011, Art. 63.

³¹ Council of the EU, Resolution of 17 November 2003, Art. 5.

³² Order of 28 August 2007 on the Creation of a Police Database on People Hit with Football Banning Orders. OJ no. 204, 4 September 2007.

³³ On the profiling methods targeting youth living in the suburbs and the correlated Bui-Trong eight-grade scale, see Bonelli, La France a peur, 383f.

³⁴ Hourcade, Lestrelin, and Mignon, Livre vert du support risme, 46.

³⁵ With the exception of the Communist Party that from the end of 2010 onwards has been engaged in regular denunciation of securitization in football stadiums, mainstream political parties have expressed concern only during parliamentary debate on the aforementioned 2011 law on internal security.

³⁶ Midi libre. ‘Annulation de 24 interdictions de stade’. 7 May 2010. http://www.midilibre.com/articles/2010/05/07/A-LA-UNE-Interdits-de-stade-ils-gagnent-le-droit-d-y-retourner-1218541.php5 (accessed April 9, 2011).

³⁷ ‘Des interdictions de stade cassées par les tribunaux’. Le Monde, August 11, 2010.

³⁸ Trivizas, ‘Offences and Offenders’; Trivizas, ‘Disturbances Associated with Football’; Williams, ‘Football Hooliganism’; Armstrong and Hobbs ‘Tackled from Behind’; Armstrong and Giulianotti, ‘From Another Angle’.

³⁹ Geyer, Taking Stock; Türk, ‘La difficile qute’.

⁴⁰ Council of the EU, Resolution of 6 December 2001, Annexe: chap.1, s.2.

⁴¹ Delmas-Marty, ‘Le paradoxe pnal’, 448f.

⁴² For Belgium, see Court of Arbitration, decision 175/2002 of 5 December 2002; For the UK, see Laws LJ in Gough vs Chief Constable of Derbyshire (2001) QBD, Section 45; Court of Appeal in Gough vs Chief Constable of Derbyshire, 20 March 2002, Section 89.

⁴³ Constitutional Council. Decision No. 2011-625 DC of 10 March 2011, Commentaire aux Cahiers. http://www.conseil-constitutionnel.fr/conseil-constitutionnel/root/bank/download/2011625DCccc_625dcpdf.

⁴⁴ For an analysis of the British case, see Pearson, ‘Qualifying for Europe?’; Blackshaw, ‘The “English Disease”’; Stott and Pearson, ‘Football Banning Orders’.

⁴⁵ For a thought-provoking discussion on this issue, see Carlen, Imaginary Penalities.

⁴⁶ For a thorough analysis of this point, see Tsoukala, ‘Risk-Focused Security Policies’.

⁴⁷ Tsoukala, Football Hooliganism.

⁴⁸ Lianos, ‘Periopticon’.