Saint-Étienne ultras face renewed dissolution threat amid local backing | OneFootball

The Saint-Étienne ultra groups Magic Fans and Green Angels face, for the second time in under a year, a renewed threat of dissolution from the Interior Ministry, prompting a citywide mobilisation. According to Le Progres, their representatives defended the groups before the national consultative commission on preventing violence on 13 April after a dissolution procedure was opened.

While the precise grievances remain unclear, prefectural travel bans have repeatedly cited damaged seats, pyrotechnics, fights involving Stéphanois and sometimes rival fans, and vandalism at motorway rest areas. Yet since the early 1990s the pair have been central to the Geoffroy-Guichard noise, with the north kop and south kop trading inventive tifos and relentless support.

On 2 April, the mayor and all 10 Loire parliamentarians, from La France insoumise to Les Républicains, wrote to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez to oppose any dissolution. Their letter warned of counter-productive effects on public order, the loss of essential safety interlocutors, and a high litigation risk.

A support rally on 11 April gathered 4,300 people, according to the prefecture, among them mayor Régis Juanico, MP Pierrick Courbon, and senators Pierre-Jean Rochette and Hervé Reynaud. Club president Yvan Gazidis also backed the groups, arguing that dissolving two supporter groups does not constitute a security strategy.

Leaders of both groups are regarded as key go-betweens for the club and police, and the collectives operate outside party politics. Their discreet charity work is longstanding, with Magic Fans raising funds for the Ligue contre le cancer for nearly 30 years, and Green Angels collecting food for Brigades de solidarité since Covid.

Source: Le Progres