Controlling football-related violence in France: law and order versus the rule of law

Abstract

This paper seeks to highlight the tension between implementing law and order and respecting rule of law in French football stadiums. It shows that, due to low football crowd disorder and to government focus on disadvantaged suburbs as key loci of social unrest, French counter-hooliganism remained until recently event-linked rather than embedded in a global strategy. Present legal provisions and police measures are heavily influenced by risk management policies, thereby leading to many different confusions in terms of value ranking, objectives to be reached, and means to achieve these objectives.