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Rugby World Cup organisers act over fan chaos in Marseille

Rugby's global governing body on Sunday said World Cup organisers would improve access to the Velodrome stadium in Marseille following reports of chaotic scenes ahead of England's 27-10 victory over Argentina.

Published: 10 September 2023 14:47 CEST

Rugby World Cup organisers act over fan chaos in Marseille

The Stade Velodrome in Marseille. Photo: CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/AFP.

The incident brought back uncomfortable memories of the organisational fiasco in Paris last year before the 2022 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool.

World Rugby released a statement saying the 2023 World Cup organising committee was “taking steps to improve access” to the iconic stadium that is usually the home of the Marseille football team “following delays” ahead of Saturday’s match.

Organisers will also deploy more volunteers to welcome fans at the stadium, increase rugby-related announcements on public transport and provide greater information on how, when and where to access the stadium, World Rugby said.

Late on Saturday night, World Rugby launched an investigation after some fans who struggled to get into the ground for the Pool D match claimed on social media that they feared for their safety.

In May last year, the Champions League final at the Stade de France was delayed by 37 minutes as fans struggled to get into the national stadium after police funnelled them into overcrowded bottlenecks as they approached.

Police then fired tear gas towards thousands of mainly Liverpool supporters locked behind metal fences outside the stadium.

Ahead of the Rugby World Cup, France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin and Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera told reporters they were “confident” and had “learned lessons” from the football showpiece.

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Olympic torch sets sail at start of its voyage to France

“The feelings are so exceptional. It’s such an emotion for me”, Tony Estanguet, Paris Olympics chief organiser, told reporters before the departure of the ship from Piraeus.

He hailed the “great coincidence” how the Belem was launched just weeks after the first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.

“These games mean a lot. It’s been a centenary since the last time we organised the Olympic games in our country,” he added.

The 19th-century three-masted boat set sail on a calm sea but under cloudy skies.

It was accompanied off the port of Piraeus by the trireme Olympias of the Greek Navy and 25 sailing boats while dozens of people watched behind railings for security reasons.

“We came here so that the children understand that the Olympic ideal was born in Greece. I’m really moved,” Giorgos Kontopoulos, who watched the ship starting its voyage with his two children, told AFP.

On Sunday, the ship will pass from the Corinth Canal — a feat of 19th century engineering constructed with the contribution of French banks and engineers.

‘More responsible Games’

The Belem is set to reach Marseille — where a Greek colony was founded in around 600 BCE — on May 8.

Over 1,000 vessels will accompany its approach to the harbour, local officials have said.

French swimmer Florent Manaudou will be the first torch bearer in Marseille. His sister Laure was the second torch bearer in ancient Olympia, where the flame was lit on April 16.

Ten thousand torchbearers will then carry the flame across 64 French territories.

It will travel through more than 450 towns and cities, and dozens of tourist attractions during its 12,000-kilometre (7,500-mile) journey through mainland France and overseas French territories in the Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific.

It will then reach Paris and be the centre piece of the hugely imaginative and new approach to the Games opening ceremony.

Instead of the traditional approach of parading through the athletics stadium at the start of the Games, teams are set to sail down the Seine on a flotilla of boats in front of up to 500,000 spectators, including people watching from nearby buildings.

The torch harks back to the ancient Olympics when a sacred flame burned throughout the Games. The tradition was revived in 1936 for the Berlin Games.

Greece on Friday had handed over the Olympic flame of the 2024 Games, at a ceremony, to Estanguet.

Hellenic Olympic Committee chairman Spyros Capralos handed the torch to Estanguet at the Panathenaic Stadium, where the Olympics were held in 1896.

Estanguet said the goal for Paris was to organise “spectacular but also more responsible Games, which will contribute towards a more inclusive society.”

Organisers want to ensure “the biggest event in the world plays an accelerating role in addressing the crucial questions of our time,” said Estanguet, a member of France’s Athens 2004 Olympics team who won gold in the slalom canoe event.

A duo of French champions, Beijing 2022 ice dance gold medallist Gabriella Papadakis and former swimmer Beatrice Hess, one of the most successful Paralympians in history, carried the flame during the final relay leg into the Panathenaic Stadium.

Nana Mouskouri, the 89-year-old Greek singer with a worldwide following, sang the French and Greek anthems at the ceremony.

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