Nothing Will Be the Same Again After the Stade de France Attack: Reflections of Association Football Fans on Terrorism,Security and Surveillance

Abstract

Following the attempted terrorist attack at the friendly match between France and Germany at the Stade de France on November 13, 2015, this article draws on the response of 1,500 association football fans to the threat of terrorism in the world’s most popular sport. Its primary focus was to ask fans to reflect on their own experiences of security and surveillance and what extent the attempted attack on the Stade de France will have on the management of football crowds. Drawing on the themes of surveillance devised by Michel Foucault, the results outline how some fans accept additional measures of security and surveillance as a means of protecting their safety but others resist this as overly excessive and intrusive and argue it negatively affects their match-day experience. The article concludes by reflecting on the management of football crowds given the response by fans and the changes already taking place since November 2015.

Keywords

football Foucault security terrorism surveillance

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Atkinson

Young

(2003). Terror games: Media treatment of security issues at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Olympika, 11, 53-78.

Atkinson

Young

(2012). Shadowed by the corpse of war: Sport spectacles and the spirit of terrorism. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, 286-306.

Bentham

(1995). The panopticon writings. London, England: Verso.

Bryman

(2012). Social research methods (4th ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Cashmore

Cleland

(2011a). Glasswing butterflies: Gay professional football players and their culture. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 35, 420-436.

Cashmore

Cleland

(2011b). Why aren’t there more black football managers? Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34, 1594-1607.

Cashmore

Cleland

(2012). Fans, homophobia and masculinities in association football: Evidence of a more inclusive environment. British Journal of Sociology, 63, 370-387.

Cashmore

Cleland

(2014). Football’s dark side: Corruption, homophobia, violence and racism in the beautiful game. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Cleland

(2014). Racism, football fans and online message boards: How social media has added a new dimension to racist discourse in British football. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 38, 415-431.

10.

Cleland

(2015a). Discussing homosexuality on association football fan message boards: A changing cultural context. International Review for the Sociology of Sport Journal, 50, 125-140.

11.

Cleland

(2015b). A sociology of football in a global context. London, England: Routledge.

12.

Cleland

Cashmore

(2014). Fans, racism and British football in the 21st century: The existence of a colour-blind ideology. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 40, 638-654.

13.

Cleland

Cashmore

(2016a). Football fans’ views of racism in British football. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 51, 27-43.

14.

Cleland

Cashmore

(2016b). Football fans’ views of violence in British football: Evidence of a sanitized and gentrified culture. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 40, 124-142.

15.

Coaffee

Murakami Wood

(2006). Security is coming home: Rethinking scale and constructing resilience in the global urban response to terrorist risk. International Relations, 20, 503-517.

16.

Foucault

(1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York, NY: Vintage.

17.

Foucault

(2007). Security, territory, population: Lectures at the Collége de France 1977-1978. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

18.

Fussey

Coaffee

(2012). Balancing local and global security leitmotifs: Counter-terrorism and the spectacle of sporting mega-events. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, 268-285.

19.

Giulianotti

Klauser

(2010). Security governance and sport mega-events: Toward an interdisciplinary research agenda. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 34, 49-61.

20.

Giulianotti

Klauser

(2012). Sport mega-events and “terrorism”: A critical analysis. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, 307-323.

21.

Hassan

(2012). Sport and terrorism: Two of modern life’s most prevalent themes. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, 263-267.

22.

Hassan

(2016). Surveillance by proxy: Sport and security in a modern age. American Behavioral Scientist, 60, 1043-1056.

23.

Horne

Manzenreiter

(2006). An introduction to the sociology of sports mega-events. Sociological Review, 54(S2), 1-24.

24.

Houlihan

Giulianotti

(2012). Politics and the London 2012 Olympics: The (in)security games. International Affairs, 88, 701-717.

25.

Koskela

(2000). “The gaze without eyes”: Video-surveillance and the changing nature of urban space. Progress in Human Geography, 24, 243-265.

26.

Nurse

(2016, June 14). Euro 2016: How is French security ensuring fan safety. BBC Sport. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36523373

27.

Palmer

(2015, November 20). El Clasico: Isis threat makes Real Madrid vs Barcelona “sport’s biggest ever security operation.” International Business Times. Retrieved from http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/el-clasico-isis-threat-makes-real-madrid-vs-barcelona-sports-biggest-ever-security-operation-1529782

28.

Paris attacks: What happened at the Stade de France? (2015, November 16). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-europe-34839080/paris-attacks-what-happened-at-stade-de-france

29.

Rumsby

(2016, May 30). Euro 2016: The five key areas the French security effort will focus on. Telegraph. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/05/30/euro-2016-the-five-key-areas-that-french-security-effort-will-fo/

30.

Samatas

(2007). Security and surveillance in the Athens 2004 Olympics: Some lessons from a troubled story. International Criminal Justice Review, 17, 220-238.

31.

Samatas

(2011). Surveillance in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008: A comparison of the Olympic surveillance modalities and legacies in two different Olympic host regimes. Urban Studies, 48, 3347-3366.

32.

Schimmel

(2017). Not an “extraordinary event”: NFL games and militarized civic ritual. Sociology of Sport Journal, 34, 79-89.

33.

Second Belgian game called off as Brussels terror alert raised. (2015, November 22). BBC Sport. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/34889884

34.

Spaaij

(2016). Terrorism and security at the Olympics: Empirical trends and evolving research agendas. The International Journal of the History of Sport, 33, 451-468.

35.

Stott

Hoggett

Pearson

(2012). “Keeping the peace”: Social identity, procedural justice and the policing of football crowds. British Journal of Criminology, 52, 381-399.

36.

Sugden

(2012). Watched by the Games: Surveillance and security at the Olympics. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, 414-429.

37.

Taylor

Toohey

(2006). Impacts of terrorism-related safety and security measures at a major sport event. Event Management, 9, 199-209.

38.

Taylor

Toohey

(2007). Perceptions of terrorism threats at the 2004 Olympic Games: Implications for sports events. Journal of Sport & Tourism, 12, 99-114.

39.

Taylor

Toohey

(2011). Ensuring safety at Australian sport event precincts: Creating securitised, sanitised and stifling spaces? Urban Studies, 48, 3259-3275.

40.

Toohey

(2008). Terrorism, sport and public policy in the risk society. Sport in Society, 11, 429-442.

41.

Toohey

Taylor

(2008). Mega events, fear, and risk: Terrorism at the Olympic Games. Journal of Sport Management, 22, 451-469.

42.

Toohey

Taylor

(2012). Surveillance and securitization: A forgotten Sydney Olympic legacy. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 47, 324-337.