Sports

Nominative ticketing to be introduced for Ligue 1’s PSG, OM and OL

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Nominative ticketing is set to be introduced for French Ligue 1 football clubs Paris Saint-Germain, Olympique de Marseille and Olympique Lyonnaise at the end of the year, in a bid to tackle poor fan behaviour in stadiums.

The nominative scheme will be rolled-out to the rest of the clubs in Ligue 1 and 2 next year, according to France’s Minister of Sports, Gil Avérous, who was speaking to French network BFMTV.

A Ligue 1 weekend was recently marred by homophobic chants, as well as clashes between supporters. In response, French football leaders were called to talk with the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, about solutions to the behaviour. 

Avérous said: “The government’s will is to avoid collective sanctions. We will go to the end of the game if necessary. More specifically, our desire is to individualise and punish those who are at the origin of the comments to avoid collective sanctions as much as possible. 

“We will activate the nominative ticketing. I will sign an order that will take effect on December 31. We will make nominative ticketing mandatory for the matches of Olympique Lyonnais, Olympique de Marseille and PSG.”

He added: “Each spectator at the stadium must have a place with his name so that we can identify where the songs, the words come from and to identify those who will be subject to stadium bans. (…) For PSG, OM and OL, nominative ticketing will be in force from December 31, 2024. For all other L1 and L2 clubs, this will be set up during the year 2025.”

Avérous also assured that because of the efficiency of modern-day ticketing systems, nominative ticketing will be “relatively easy to set up” and that it was already in place in other sports such as rugby and tennis in the country.

“There is no concern that in the very short term we can identify where troublemakers are. They will be prosecuted, sanctioned and banned from the stadium,” he concluded.