No, those with Red and Black hearts fight for their own existence, for a future they wish to continue writing for many more years in the sweet clamor of a stadium where the resounding chants echo a life marked by the Nissart seal.
The Ultras represent the most participative form of support for a club, which itself represents a city, values, an identity, a past that has its place in the future.
Brigade Sud Nice 1985 is part of a phenomenon that exploded in the 1980s before becoming indispensable. The true soul of the stadiums, a proven social link, the world of Ultras is in the grip of a crisis hitting them head-on.
Often “stigmatized” and mistakenly confused with hooligans, these enthusiasts note that, “For a number of years, repression against supporters and ultras has increased exponentially in and around football stadiums.”
The BSN, gathered in “Buro,” particularly protests “against the injustices suffered by all organized groups in France and Europe; we have been particularly attentive to discriminatory treatment, abuses of rights and power, provocations, or other harassments, which have resulted in multiple actions at local and national levels.”
The demonstration on May 17, 2008, in Nice had nevertheless paved the way for a “freedom for the Ultras,” where 2,000 people gathered from across France and beyond, without causing any incident. Since then, little has changed for the BSN, which notes that
“The current increasingly repressive policy pursued by the government and various prefectures forces us to restart the process of revendicative and constructive actions to fight against the injustices done to a part of the citizens of this country whose motto ‘Liberty, Equality, Fraternity’ seems increasingly random. For these reasons, we call on all our members and supporters who are subscribers to the south popular stand not to enter the stadium and to join us from 4:00 pm in front of it to claim our inalienable rights, which include freedom of expression and movement, equality of treatment in justice, respect for existing laws texts and the presumption of innocence, opposition to racial profiling or group membership.”
The exasperation is real, and the concern is palpable.
“They have deprived us of our Liberty; we are not treated with Equality, but let us show everyone the Fraternity that unites us.”
This Nice-Monaco game will ring hollow in demonstrating the importance of the presence of a popular stand, which is the “life” of the stadium. At Ray, the Popular Stand will be silenced, and hearts will be heavy when the vast emptiness is observed by all.
“An image that aims to be strong to show how vital the atmosphere in a football venue is. It must be made clear to people that stadiums will die if no one reacts. Soon, clapping to support your team will be reprehensible…” Renaud has been a loyal fan of the Gym for many years and a member of the Brigade Sud since its inception.
Faced with the situation, he denounces the “true witch hunt delivered against the Ultras and by extension to all supporters who are somewhat passionate, demonstrative, exuberant. We are not treated by law and justice the same way as any other citizen.
We are stigmatized, and this proceeds from fantasies, from a phantasmagoria of the ultra world. football
In fact, behind all this lies a desire to sanitize the stands by removing what they exist for: passion.
But what are the football authorities doing?
“The ‘financiers and decision-makers in football’ want consumers, not supporters. Consumers willing to pay dearly for their seat, to buy official merchandise, to eat popcorn with the club logo, sitting quietly! However, the Ultras are rebels, dissenters who do not hesitate to criticize club management.”
Me Pozzo di Borgo, a specialist in the question and lawyer for the group, confirms that the “current repression infringes on fundamental rights (assembly, coming and going, expression), even involving ‘racial profiling’. Essential liberties are not respected, especially the rights of the defense.
The administrative stadium bans, which fall under administrative policing, are meant to be preventive: they aim to remove people likely to pose a threat to public order. This implies that said individuals are merely suspected of being dangerous. Such a presumption would require a strict and particularly attentive application of defense rights. However, it is quite the opposite, and Stadium Bans (IDS) are pronounced on the basis of simple identity checks… and a ‘famous’ secret RG file! From prevention, we fall into an absurd application of the precautionary principle, with all the risks of arbitrariness, exaggeration, and disproportion it presents.
On the strictly penal level, a member of the BSN apparently faces heavier penalties for the same acts than a ‘regular’ delinquent. In matters of violence, recently a thief released from custody while five brigadiers were sentenced to two months imprisonment suspended and six months ban from stadiums for defending themselves, even though no one was injured, after they were initially jostled and then hit by two (curiously unidentified) people present in the popular stand during the Nice/OM match. The Ultras wonder: why such a discrepancy?
Concretely, since 2006, some 80 people from Nice have been subjected to administrative and judicial ‘IDS’. Among specific cases, ‘Pampi’, a supporter who, having symbolically lit a flare during the Nice-Marseille match on May 13, 2009, in the popular stand to pay tribute to PTITOL, a BSN member tragically lost at that time, has just been sentenced to one month of stadium ban by the judicial authorities.
Another received an 18-month IDS from the Saint Etienne Criminal Court for having ‘dared’ to light a flare to celebrate Nice’s first goal… on the first day of the championship.
“There is a disproportion between what we are, what we do, and what happens to us,” the supporters seem affected but do not wish to be sunk. For them, the Gym is a big family. Supporting is their way of existing. Their message is clear: “They have deprived us of our Liberty; we are not treated with Equality, but let us show everyone the Fraternity that unites us.”
