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GETTING STARTED IN FRANCE

4 March 2011

As part of my new role I recently spend some time in France to find out what activity there was with regard to disabled football supporters. 

I met with Malik Badsi who had agreed to look after me during my trip. Malik is President – Directeur General of an organization called YOOLA which specializes in setting up travel packages for disabled sports fans and an associated charity. For example in 2010 he was involved in trips to South Africa for the World Cup ties involving France. 

Malik also has a great deal of knowledge as to what the situation is in France with regard to disabled football fans and this information was extremely useful.

There are currently five Disabled Supporters Associations (DSA) in place at PSG, Marseilles, Lyons, Nantes and St Etienne.

Fabrice advised that their disabled fans at Auxerre, Rennes and Bordeaux who might be interested in forming a DSA .In 2010, due to violence at football matches, the French Ministry of Sport set up a national meeting to try and form a national supporters association. They made a point of making sure disabled fans were involved however this initiative didn't really get off the ground. An offshoot was the willingness of the French Ministry of Sport to support the setting up of a national DSA.The project to establish this group was delegated to Rene Poutet at Marseilles with the full support of the other DSA's.The next step in the process is for the interim national DSA office bearers to meet again with the Minister of Support, sometime in the next few weeks, CAFE will be invited along to the meeting.

Later we met with Fabrice Hudiart, President of Handicap PSG (see picture below)

http://handicapsg.skyrock.com/2979360613-ENTRETIEN-AVEC-KEITH-FERGUSON.html

Fabrice is a wheelchair user, a big football fan and very keen to work and talk with CAFE. Handicap PSG (Paris St Germain DSA) has 44 members and they have 25 of the available 66 wheelchair spaces allocated at the stadium. They currently have a rota system in place so members get to about 2/3 games. The other 41 spaces are offered to the general public however this is always over subscribed with demand being higher for every home match. The season after next, the football club will play its homes games at the Stade de France whilst their own stadium the Parc de Prince is re-developed. Fabrice has been involved in discussions with the club on the re-development which CAFE was very pleased to hear. This should ensure that more disabled fans can attend matches in the future with the limited number of tickets via a rota scheme no longer as issue. 

Due to the violence at matches between the two teams PSG fans are banned from going to the next fixture in Marseilles. Fabrice and Rene from Marseilles are keen to show the fans that they can learn from disabled fans who all get on with each other. At the game Rene and Fabrice will go onto the pitch in their club shirts and shake hands and at the same time a commentary from the club/s will be relayed to the fans. They will then swop shirts and wear the opposite club colours for the rest of the game. We’ll be sure to keep you posted about this important event. 

Next day it was off to Marseilles and straight to the stadium as Rene, Poutet and David Moussy from HandiFan Club OM would be there three hours before the kick off. As well as meeting me, they wanted to show me their operation pre match. HandiFan Club has about 25 volunteers who act as stewards and organizers, below is a picture of me and the group after the game had finished.

Membership of the club is around 500. The stewards help people if needed get from the car park to the main area in the Ganay Stand and the 300 yards to smaller areas in the Jean Bouin Stand. There is a pan-disability outlook within the club which is good to see and the way the stand and seating is managed and laid out, a wheelchair user and all of his/her family can all go together. As you enter the stand, Marino has the job of checking the tickets and it was especially interesting to meet him see picture below. He is a wheelchair user (he was severely injured while working as a fireman) and it was great to see a disabled person working as a steward at the club on match day. CAFE belives that there should be many more disabled people actively employed at football clubs. 

There are two elevated sections at each end of the Jean Bouin Stand each having 14 wheelchair user and PA positions. Most disabled supporters prefer to use the area in the Ganay Stand which has a capacity for 466 fans. The picture below will give you an idea of the set up in this stand. For more information and pictures see the comments on our stadia web page at link.

http://stadium.cafefootball.eu/France/Stade-Veledrome.aspx

Keith Ferguson,

Western European Development Officer