“A steward will work six hours, paid the minimum wage, and will return home in the evening, having sometimes been in the cold all day, and perhaps insulted when he was near the ultras, to touch 60 euros. Do I want to do this for this amount? I am not convinced of it. ” The bitter report comes out of the mouth of Salvatore Furnari, president of the company which has managed the security of FC Metz since 2019, whose agents are paid double the hourly minimum wage (10.48 euros gross).
The recent episodes of violence in the Ligue 1 stands have brought the steward profession back to the fore. Latest incident to date: the throwing of a water bottle on the head of the playmaker of Olympique de Marseille (OM), Dimitri Payet, during the meeting between Olympique Lyonnais and OM, on 21 November, match finally stopped after two hours of suspension and an incredible imbroglio. The men in the fluorescent chasuble kept their cool in the face of a situation as delicate as it was unthinkable, when the meeting had barely started. “The identification of the troublemaker, his exfiltration by the stewards and his taking into custody lasted seven minutes”, says Florent Deligia, communications director for Olympique Lyonnais.
Additional constraints
Even before the multiplication of supporters overflowing in the stands, the profession, ungrateful and little considered, has for several years recorded a shortage of vocations. The terrorist attacks of November 2015 generated an explosion in the need for these men and women in charge of security, but since then, it has been difficult to fill the understaffed staff. A phenomenon that has accelerated since the Covid-19 epidemic. The end of meetings in spring 2020, then a year in camera, led to an exodus from the profession, some choosing to retrain.
When the championship resumed in August, the return of full gauges conditioned by the sanitary pass generated other constraints, with a need to increase the workforce estimated at nearly 30% according to the Organization of event security professionals. For the Reims club, for example, 55 unplanned positions in the budget had to be created since the start of the season. “The lawn steward is not just sensitive to intrusion attempts, he reminds them to wear a mask and must ensure that people respect the distances in the stands and queues in addition to traditional tasks. It can create points of tension that did not exist before ”, notes Cédric Uha, head of security at the Stade de Reims.
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