The match between the U18s of Brétigny-sur-Orge and Fleury-Mérogis (Essonne) took place without incident. A violent brawl broke out, several tens of minutes after this regional 1 meeting, on February 5, in the parking lot of the stadium, between young people from the two cities. In the confrontation, a 15-year-old boy from Fleury was stabbed and then hospitalized. A judicial investigation was opened on February 11, and a 17-year-old minor, originally from Brétigny, was indicted for “attempted voluntary homicide” and placed in pre-trial detention; three other adolescents aged 15 to 17 were indicted for “aggravated violence” and “participation in a group formed with a view to preparing violence” and placed under judicial supervision, confirms the prosecution of Evry-Courcouronnes.
“Everything suggests that this incident is quite disconnected from football. Some youngsters didn’t even watch the game and came towards the end.”, deplores the mayor of Brétigny-sur-Orge, Nicolas Méary (UDI). In a press release published after the incidents, Julien Pasco, president of CS Brétigny Football, goes in the same direction: “We just want football, and its clubs, not to be used as a pretext for these fights between rival gangs. Which unfortunately happens far too often in recent years…”
Because it is the most popular sport, especially in priority neighborhoods, the world of amateur football finds itself confronted with these stories between rival gangs as in Essonne, a department affected by these incidents, which particularly concern adolescents between 14 and 18. years. “Like stations, shopping centers or schools, stadiums and their surroundings are places of passage and concentration of young people, conducive to these clashes”, analyzes Thomas Sauvadet, a sociologist specializing in the phenomenon of gangs. The training schedules are regular and the weekend meetings announced: it is easy for young people to know where to find teenagers from another rival district.
“We will have disasters”
In Brétigny, on February 5, we suspect a ” return match “ after tensions between the two cities a few months earlier. “In Fleury, we have a lot of problems with Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, Saint-Michel-sur-Orge, Grigny… These are often stories that start in neighborhoods or in high schools and end up inviting around the stadium »deplores a member of FC Fleury 91, who preferred to remain anonymous as the subject remains sensitive.
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