After the personalized tickets, the Swiss football clubs are now also refusing to close stadium sectors. They rely on dialogue with the fans and call on the state to take tougher action.
FC Zurich fans expressed their dissatisfaction with the so-called cascade model in Letzigrund on Sunday.
Ennio Leanza / Keystone
Everywhere in Swiss football stadiums, fans are unrolling banners: “Fans, clubs and leagues united against the cascade model,” it says. In German, in French. And below: “Collective punishments are followed by collective responses.” This can be seen at the weekend in the game between FC Luzern and Servette FC (2:2), in Zurich, in Basel.
In Lucerne, everything goes on as usual in the audience of 11,800 people. The Servette fans do without torches and fireworks, which they recently set off in abundance at the cup game in Delsberg in front of the association’s top brass, as if it were New Year’s Eve and August 1st. Snapshots in Swiss stadiums can be so different.
While the Conference of Cantonal Justice and Police Directors (KKJPD) is sticking to the cascade model that has been negotiated for months, this is being rejected by the fans. That’s not new. What is new is that the league and the 22 professional clubs are also opposing it. Whereby: The Super League in particular is standing in the way; in the Challenge League, which is less affected by this, the veto is approved.
The riots at the Challenge League game on Saturday between Aarau and Baden (2-0) show how unexpected football violence can break out. Over 7,000 people are present, there is damage to property outside the Brügglifeld and there is a police operation. In the stadium, the start of the game was delayed by several minutes due to heavy pyrotechnic smoke.
In 2023, football adopted the cascade model
The new dynamic came to a head last week when Swiss football pulled out of a project it had helped support in 2023. The cascade model provides for measures depending on the severity of violent acts – such as blocking sectors of the stadium. The authorities have ordered this several times in recent months following incidents.
This and poor communication quickly raised concerns in football circles. It also became apparent that the measure shifted problems. Fans who were excluded got tickets for other areas of the stadium. In a communiqué, fan work on behalf of the largest Swiss clubs writes: “Match days with collective measures have led to a deterioration in the general security situation on the journey and in the stadium, with additional effort from everyone involved and complete planning uncertainty.”
The clubs and the league are moving in the same direction: no causal liability, no collective penalties. Like fan work, they rely on dialogue, the so-called stadium alliances and the situational assessment of the situation by various actors.
How St. Gallen defused a difficult situation
When Matthias Hüppi, the president of FC St. Gallen, has to explain himself about the problem of violence “in almost every presentation,” he also talks about positive experiences “which unfortunately are not mentioned enough.” When FC Zurich played with its growing supporters in St. Gallen at the end of 2023, things got tricky at one entrance. 1,900 away fans were already in the full away section, but there were still 200 outside waiting to get in. It was possible to accommodate these people in the so-called buffer zones on the edge of the sector.
Talk, don’t block. People have been talking about this for years. With moderate success. YB CEO Wanja Greuel understands those people who are annoyed by the clash between authorities and football. But he says: “The sector ban increases the risk and frustration in certain fan circles – and it shifts the problem to other sectors.”
Legal questions also arise. In the wake of the riots after the match against Basel at the train station in Altstetten at the end of 2023, the Zurich licensing authority closed the FCZ fan sector for the game against Lausanne-Sport. This means: Because there were clashes between violent criminals and the police far from the stadium, a few thousand bystanders are punished.
FC Zurich is now having the legality of the sector closure examined in court. It’s not just about liability and causal connections and not just about whether collective punishment is legal, but also about the right to economic freedom. The Zurich Administrative Court will probably make an initial judgment on the issues. The court decision on this could be groundbreaking.
The crime scenes are often outside the stadium. This puts the focus on state power. The attitude of the club bosses: rigorous prosecution of individual perpetrators. “Rigorous intervention by the police, as is sometimes the case abroad,” can be heard from club circles. Christian Constantin, the president of FC Sion, speaks of “urgency law”.
FCZ President Ancillo Canepa wrote in the last match newspaper: “Violent individuals must be identified and punished by the responsible authorities as part of the prosecution of individual perpetrators.” The official of another club does not understand why the police are often unable to isolate and arrest a few thugs outside the stadiums. That sounds good. The call for the police sometimes gives the impression that the clubs are trying to shirk their responsibility. And: If the security forces take tough action, fan groups are the first to storm against it with the popular justification of “disproportionality”.
The city of Zurich is sticking to sector closures
While the football community rejects the cascade model, the state authorities are sticking to it. Zurich city security director Karin Rykart (Greens) says: “The approval authorities have decided to introduce it for the next season. Until then, based on the Hooligan Concordat, I will examine whether any measures are taken in the event of incidents of violence.
Rykart emphasizes the Swiss-wide standardization of the model and the transparency – “also towards the clubs. We hope for a preventive effect against violence and riots. It’s a clear signal. The perpetrators of violence should be persuaded to change their behavior.”
Dialog? Sector lock? More repressive police? The complexity of the violence of mostly young and mostly male fans brings with it excessive demands and helplessness. «The authorities have the power. “You can prescribe whatever you want,” says Constantin. Meanwhile, Hüppi is thinking about how St. Gallen should deal with the closed guest sector in the game against Lucerne on April 1st. And Canepa is waiting for a court decision. The hope for improvement dies last.