A couple of articles in Grenoble et Moi (one of the many free magazines and newspapers distributed throughout the town) caught my eye the other day. The first is about the reaction of Algerian fans every time their national team wins a match – apparently last time this happened, a car and a scooter were torched. I’ve not seen any burning vehicles, but I have seen lots of hooting cars with young men hanging out waving Algerian flags. The police are quoted as saying:
“Nous ne sommes pas à un niveau d’alerte dun match du GF38, mais nous devons maintenant être vigilants à chaque match de l’équipe algérienne”
That is, they’re on a level of alert every time there’s an Algerian match, but not for GF38. Grenoble Foot 38 are the local team… which leads me to the second article of interest.
GF38 are in league 1, but have yet to win a match. The magazine says “sauf incroyable retournement de situation, l’avenir du GF38 se dessine en Ligue 2“. They’re currently 8 points adrift at the bottom of the table after losing 10 consecutive games. They would indeed need an incredible reversal of the situation in order to have a future in league 1. However, I’m really not surprised that the police don’t have to be on alert when they play! I’d like to try and catch a match though – apart from anything else, the stade des alpes looks really rather special.