The pre-game show (also known as Dakhla) held by fans of Avenir Sportif de Gabès football team on December 12, depicted their foes— Stade Gabèsien—as sympathizers to the former French colonialists.
Avenir fans held a giant banner showing a line dividing the city into two parts, and pictures of themselves as freedom fighters on horses, carrying primitive weapons and guns and confronting the mortars of the French soldiers. Graffiti in the stadium showed similar events, with Avenir as the historical heroes.
Separating rival fans
The pre-game show (also known as Dakhla) held by fans of Avenir Sportif de Gabès football team on December 12, depicted their foes— Stade Gabèsien—as sympathizers to the former French colonialists.
Avenir fans held a giant banner showing a line dividing the city into two parts, and pictures of themselves as freedom fighters on horses, carrying primitive weapons and guns and confronting the mortars of the French soldiers. Graffiti in the stadium showed similar events, with Avenir as the historical heroes.
Separating rival fans
It turns out these historical wounds are still fresh, as fears of a bloody conflict between Gabes residents alerted authorities at the Directorate of the Ministry of Youth and Sports. In more than one incident, the police have recorded acts of violence and rioting between the fans of the two teams during games, due to slogan and banners like the ones described above, according to the judicial police squad of Gabes.
A few days before the game, the ministry attempted to distribute T-shirts bearing the colours and logos of the two teams, to keep such divisive banners and slogans from being raised.
Radwan al-Issawi, head of the judicial police squad in Gabes, told Correspondents he decided to deploy security forces to the two areas in anticipation of the reactions of Stade Gabèsien fans. “The dangerous slogans, which contained hatred and violence speech, may have changed the course of events from a sports game into violent clashes between the people of the city.”
The Ministry of Youth and Sports, for the last three years, has only allowed the fans of one team to enter the stadium “because of the state of insecurity witnessed by the country after the flight of the country’s President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.” He said this system has prevented a “civil disaster” between the fans of the two teams.
Educated hooligans
“This phenomenon is limited to people between 25-35 and most of them are university students who volunteer to draw paintings and come up with slogans,” said philosopher and university professor Beshir Muadab. ”Their educational backgrounds allow them to access historical information and manipulate it in order to provoke their opponents.”
Muadab attributed the violence to stress-related pressure valves: “Unemployed people, delinquents and even students facing the pressure of university exams go to the stadiums and commit illegal acts in the stadiums.” Muadab said educational awareness programs were the only effective way to deal with historically-tainted hate speech.
Muadab also criticised Tunisian TV for airing the graffiti because he claimed it contributed to the promotion of intolerance. “The Tunisian media should play a positive role in order to avoid slipping into the ditch of agitating social instability during this sensitive political period.”
