Ajax Amsterdam supporters are banned from appearing in Marseille during the Europa League match between the two teams on November 30 at the Stade Vélodrome, due to “serious security risks”, according to a decree from the French authorities . The ban runs from Wednesday 29 noon to Friday 1 December at 2:00 a.m. for any person claiming to be an Ajax supporter, specifies the Bouches-du-Rhône police headquarters in its decree published on Wednesday.
At this stage, the Ministry of the Interior has not yet issued an order to prohibit the travel of Dutch supporters. In its decree, the police headquarters is concerned about the fact that 2,000 Ajax supporters would like to go to Marseille outside of any organized and escorted travel. Among them, 200 to 500 would not have tickets and there could also be “at risk Polish and Belgian” supporters. She also notes that Ajax counts “among its supporters many ultras, notably grouped within the group called F-Side, known in the Netherlands and in Europe as being one of the most violent in the country”. And the prefecture recalled that during the first leg counting for the first day of the Europa League, on September 21, which ended in a draw (3-3), there had been tensions between supporters of the two camps, with violence targeting Marseillais in the metro.
At the end of October, French football experienced a nightmarish and damaging episode in terms of images in Marseille with the stone crushing of a bus transporting the players and staff of the Lyon team. OL coach Fabio Grosso was seriously injured in the face. The OM-OL match was finally postponed to December 6 and three investigations are underway, for the stone-throwing of the OL bus, for that of a Lyon supporters’ bus and finally for the Nazi salutes and monkey cries launched by Lyon supporters towards the Marseillais inside the stadium.