The collective of victims of the Furiani tragedy in 1992 had been asking for it for years. Parliament has granted its wish: from now on, there will be no more professional football matches on May 5, in tribute to the 18 dead and thousands of injured from the disaster. It remains to convince the authorities of football.
Carried by the Corsican MP Michel Castellani (Liberties and Territories), the bill was adopted last February in the Assembly. The senators voted the text without amendment in committee. The same vote in the sitting on Thursday is therefore valid for final adoption.
Supported by the government, the bill plans to modify the sports code so that “no match or sporting event” in Ligue 1, Ligue 2, Coupe de France and the Champions Trophy is played on May 5. For amateur football, the text provides for the organization of a minute of silence and the wearing of a black armband on May 5. By 2040, only eight days of championships could be affected.
A highly symbolic text
The Minister in charge of the City, Nadia Hai, clarified that the text does not include sanctions, because the Ministry of Sports “works with the football authorities” so that the freezing of matches is respected. According to her, it is about establishing “a framework of lasting commemoration in order to fight against oblivion”.
Of limited legal scope, the adoption of this text is however highly symbolic, a few months from the thirtieth anniversary of the tragedy of Furiani. On May 5, 1992, a tribune of the Armand-Cesari stadium (also known as Furiani, the name of the city where it was built) collapsed during the semi-final of the Coupe de France between Sporting Club Bastia and the ‘Olympic Marseille. The event had deeply marked France and in particular the world of football.
“The recourse to the law constitutes the ultimate hope for the collective of the victims to be heard”, pleaded the rapporteur Thomas Dossus (environmentalist), defending the “balanced character of the device”, which “does not concern the amateur matches nor international matches ”.
For the senator of Upper Corsica Paul Toussaint Parigi, this text makes it possible to inscribe “in the marble of the law that neither money can stifle life, nor forgetfulness sacrifice memory.” The vote “also sends a message to Corsica,” said South Corsican Senator Jean-Jacques Panunzi (LR), lamenting that “the national sports authorities have not been present for many years.”
On all the benches, senators nevertheless expressed their reservations or their questions on this text. How to explain that it is examined “almost 30 years after the tragedy”, questioned Didier Rambaud (RDPI majority En Marche). “In agreement with the substance (…) we wonder about the relevance of resorting to the law”, declared the president of the RDSE group with radical majority Jean-Claude Requier. Socialist Jean-Jacques Lozach spoke of “an act of calling into question the autonomy of the sports movement”.
