The mayor took two orders to supervise the wanderings of Olympique de Marseille supporters who came to watch the match against AC Ajaccio on Saturday evening. The fishermen’s festival takes place at the same time. The City hoped for a prefectural decree prohibiting the movement
650, 800, 1,000… at the Timizzolu stadium on Saturday? The number of Olympique de Marseille (OM) supporters who will travel to Ajaccio to attend their club’s return match against AC-Ajaccio remains undetermined. The only certainty on the other hand and which greatly worries the municipal authorities: there will be many of them, some without a ticket and without having provided accommodation. This crowd coincides with the biggest popular festival in the city, Saint-Erasme, organized by the association of Pescadori in festa and which is held for three days and three nights.
READ ALSO. The mayor of Ajaccio issues two decrees to regulate the presence of supporters of Olympique de Marseille
The shipping companies have not provided us with any significant information enabling us to assess the number of supporters who will embark on Thursday and Friday for Ajaccio, but the 450 parking spaces for visitors to the stadium, the total capacity of which amounts to 10,000 spectators, have already all been allocated.
“All the conditions are met for overflows”
“We still do not know the number of people without ticketscomments the security director of the Ajaccien club, but we will ensure that the meeting takes place in the best conditions”. The OM communication service wants to be reassuring: “There’s no reason for it to go wrong, it’s an end-of-season meeting, with no sporting stakes for either team, the first leg went well by the way”.
Lack of stake, absence of recent litigation between the two clubs, these elements do not reassure the town hall. “While some supporters have booked hotels and campsites, we know that many of them have not provided accommodation. Some have already arrived, the others will arrive in town on Friday, the bulk of the troops on Saturday morning to leave by the boat on Sunday evening. Where will they go? The Pescadori in festa welcome every day and every evening until Sunday noon several thousand Ajacciens who come with their families to enjoy the festivities on the port until late at night Tino Rossi is quite simply the biggest festive weekend of the year. However, this sporting event is not supervised at all, so, inevitably, we are afraid of excesses!”, is indignant the town hall. The concern of the municipal authorities is reinforced by exchanges on social networks between supporters of the two teams, an appointment would have been fixed, via a WhatsApp loop, to do battle Friday evening in the city center. The association of Ajaccio supporters, L’Orsi Ribelli, was unreachable yesterday.
Stéphane Sbraggia: “All of this is mind-boggling!”
As of last week, the mayor of Ajaccio, Stéphane Sbraggia, previously alerted by the prefecture of a large arrival of Marseille supporters, had requested an intervention from the prefect to the Ministry of the Interior to prohibit travel due to “tangible elements of serious risks of disturbing public order”. In vain. Several meetings have since taken place at the Palais Lantivy in the presence of the coordinator for security in Corsica, representatives of the City and the Ajaccien club. But the decree hoped for by the City, prohibiting, a minimal, the movement of supporters in the Ajaccien center was not taken. The prefecture did not respond to requests from Corse-Matin. According to our information, the prefect signed at the end of the afternoon yesterday, a most classic decree, prohibiting only the use of pyrotechnic devices, firecrackers and other mortars.
A largely insufficient provision according to the mayor of Ajaccio who, a few minutes before this decision, had already, by virtue of his police power, issued two orders to supervise the wanderings of OM supporters (see opposite). In addition, Fisherman’s Day evenings will end at 12:30 a.m. with the closing of the bar and the end of the music. Objective: to disperse the crowd on the port at one o’clock in the morning maximum. The citadel will be exceptionally closed from 6 p.m. today until 8 a.m. Sunday.
Stéphane Sbraggia expresses his anger and incomprehension: “I find all of this bewildering. With the information we have of a risk of public order disturbances, I do not understand that the security measures are not proportionate! All the conditions are met for an overflow, I do not don’t understand this culture of waiting for a drama (from the prefecture editor’s note). We anticipate the arrival of at least 800 people, in a football atmosphere that we know is often violent and the meeting is not supervised. I have been forced to make decisions that quarantine the city as we celebrate a major popular holiday.”
The complete file in our edition of Friday, June 2
2023-06-01 23:30:11
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