Why is French football out of control?

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it now french football is having a

chaotic year

between august and november there were

10 separate incidents of fan trouble all

of which impacted liga games and in some

cases have left supporters and even

players injured

but why what's causing this sudden rush

of chaos

[Music]

well first a recap of the incidents

themselves in august missiles thrown by

montpellier fans at marseille players

forced the teams off the pitch and delay

the conclusion of the game two weeks

later another game involving marseille a

bottle is thrown by nice fans at dimitri

payet who then retaliates by hurling the

bottle back at supporters it sparks a

pitch invasion which also involves the

respective coaching staff

poya is kicked by a fan during the malay

and an olympic marseille fitness coach

is shown on television punching a nice

supporter on september the 18th dozens

of lons fans invade the pitch in

response to provocation by visiting

lille supporters

a day later a young psg fan is hit by

debris thrown by lyon supporters at the

par de prom

and september the 22nd is a low point

three separate games are affected by

crowd trouble

injuries are reported after

montpellier's game with bordeaux as the

latter's coach is damaged by stones

being thrown and on the same night at

both mets against psg and ongear vs

olympic marseille rival fans throw

missiles at each other

exactly a month later on the 22nd of

october a santetian home game is delayed

by fans throwing flares onto the pitch

two days on neymar's attempts to take

corners in a game between psg and om are

repeatedly met by missiles thrown by

opposition supporters

and most recently in mid-november leon's

game against marseille was barely five

minutes old when dimitri payet was

struck by a water bottle and fell to the

floor the game was delayed and then

postponed

in response players have been sanctioned

with bands clubs have been forced to

play games in front of partially or

completely empty stadiums banning orders

have also been given and in the case of

the supporter who kicked dimitri payat a

suspended prison sentence has even been

handed down

and as expected various club presidents

have also contributed inflammatory

rhetoric to an already overheated

situation

but why is this happening now

well a generic explanation is that

having had football taken away during

the pandemic some returning supporters

have allowed the game's return and its

rivalries to get the better of them it's

a contributing issue as are the deeper

more sociological and economic effects

of covid but there's a containment

problem too

a bigger factor has been a stewarding

shortage or a shortage of experienced

stewards

in an article for the athletic tom

williams spoke to stefan budo

president of the security ctfc trade

union who explained that many stewards

left the industry when the pandemic shut

it down

and having been forced to find

employment elsewhere haven't returned

the effect has been to create a

relatively understaffed and

inexperienced workforce in stadia which

as bhutan explains isn't equipped

prepared or motivated to deal with the

challenges arising

when incidents occur you can't ask

someone who's so poorly paid and who has

such a precarious economic status to put

themselves in harm's way in order to

keep the pitch secure he told the

athletic

what happens next is uncertain

in response to the rush of incidents a

task force has been formed combining

government ministers and influential

figures from within a range of sports

and they're expected to announce any

findings or new measures before

christmas

until then french football awaits its

next disruption

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