what is nominative ticketing, which will come into force in stadiums from 2025? – Liberation

Faced with the persistence of homophobic chants and violence in the stadiums, the authorities decided to set up nominative ticketing. “We want to avoid collective sanctions. Our desire is to individualize the sanctions. We will activate nominative ticketing. I am going to sign an order which will take effect on December 31, detailed Sports Minister Gil Avérous to BFMTV on Thursday October 24. “Each spectator must have a place with their name so that we can identify where the songs and comments are coming from and to identify those who are subject to stadium bans.“, he said. This is the principle of nominative ticketing. This new measure comes following the controversy generated by the homophobic chants chanted by Parisian supporters on Saturday October 19 at the Parc des Princes during the Ligue 1 match between the capital club and Strasbourg.

Following a meeting at the Ministry of the Interior with the French football authorities (the FFF and the LFP), the Minister of Sports also asked, “to strictly apply the Fifa protocol as soon as there is a homophobic song”, namely a gradation going from «suspension du match» then his «interruption» until the match is declared lost for the home team in the event of homophobic chants. This measure is not new. The two ministers who preceded him, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Roxana Maracineanu in 2019, had addressed the same request to the authorities.

“Call out the troublemakers”

What does nominative ticketing allow? According to the LFP, “the legal arsenal exists with the possibility of imposing exemplary sanctions in terms of stadium bans, whether administrative or judicial”, explains the instance, which says “favorable to anything that will allow troublemakers to be identified and arrested to then allow sanctions to be individualized.” By December 31, nominative ticketing will be activated for Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille and PSG.

This system, already in place for certain matches, will subsequently be extended to other Ligue 1 and L2 clubs. At PSG, there has been a nominative ticket office since the 2013-2014 season, according to a source close to the club, which has not yet reacted officially, as has the National Supporters Association, present at the meeting. While the OM-PSG clash takes place on Sunday in Marseille, Gil Avérous recommended stopping the match in the event of a problem.

For his part, the Minister of the Interior assured that he would place “police officers regularly in civilian clothes in stadiums to individually identify troublemakers,” adding that “Clubs must take their responsibilities. We have to do some excavations.” He also spoke of the use of technology, “to algorithmic cameras. And reports the low number of stadium bans in France, around 200 compared to 3,000 in England.