'Treated as criminals': Some football fans in France want freedom

Paris shivered in the cold but a big group of bare-chested fans, holding a banner that read 'Treated as Criminals' and singing gruffly, dancing barely and hooting, didn't.

The fans, "emblematic" of a peculiar problem facing French football, want freedom, freedom to watch a game at peace, far away from the suspicious gaze of authorities and their heavily-armed forces.

They want the liberty to enter stadiums with crackers, and burst them too, at will, despite an official ban on it. They also want to move across stadiums in cities all over France without worrying about detention.

The temperature hovered around 3-4 degrees celsius and as they brandished the Paris Saint-Germain flag, they may have said something about repression of football fans in France.

Onlookers said they were typically them during a Women's Champions League round-of-16 game between Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea on Thursday.

While the relentless backing did raise hopes of a rejuvenated PSG overturning a two-goal deficit from the first leg, the crowds that occupied one of the Jean Bouin Stadium, did everything they are not supposed to.

"Now that they lit firecrackers during the game, which is not allowed, the club, PSG, will have to pay the penalty, a fine," an official involved with French football league said.

But they don't care.

At least as a far as matches involving PSG are concerned, things weren't like this in the past.

But a lot changed nearly a decade ago when, during a home game of France's most renowned team, violence broke out in the stands between two support groups of the same club, leading to death of one fan.

That incident led to the formulation of 'Leproux Plan', named after the club's then president Robin Leproux, under which those fans were banned from entering the stadiums for PSG's home matches.

The dust settled over time, and the ban was lifted a few years ago, much before the completion of 10 years.

"The ban has been removed but they are not supposed to burst crackers as per rule."
"That was the only way then, but that perception of these fans has lived on and the police are on guard now all the time."