Children under the age of 14 are used by supporters to introduce firecrackers and torches into stadiums, given that they cannot be held criminally liable. Psychologists warn that thus minors are encouraged to become delinquents.
Football galleries introduced pyrotechnic materials with the help of children – Photo Archive
Supporters use children to introduce firecrackers and torches into stadiums. This is because they cannot be held criminally liable.
The gendarmes sounded the alarm after they caught children aged 10-12 trying to enter football matches with firecrackers and torches. According to the authorities, the minors are influenced by the members of the galleries, knowing that they cannot be held criminally responsible. 13 children were fined and banned from the stadiums.
This year, the police and gendarmerie raided the homes of the leaders of the main football clubs in Bucharest, bringing to hearings dozens of people suspected of involvement in acts of violence at the stadiums. During the raids, the authorities confiscated a significant amount of pyrotechnic articles.
However, only eight people from a criminal case instrumented this year were sent to court, for beatings or other violence, destruction, illegal carrying of dangerous objects or disturbance of public order.
Instead, in the last two years, a hundred people could not be held criminally responsible because they were minors, not having the age of 14 at the time of committing the acts.
“The most minors detected while committing acts of a criminal nature were at League 1 matches. 47 last season. 35 fines totaling over 4,000 lei were applied, and for 13 minors the complementary sanction of banning access to sports competitions for 6 months or one year was applied“, said the spokesperson of the Bucharest Gendarmerie, Alexandru Iacob
A kind of baptism to be received in the gallery
Cosmin Andreică, president of the Europol union, believes that such things have not yet reached such a scale to be considered a phenomenon.
“I don’t know about a phenomenon, if it happened, it happens recently. In our legislation, children under the age of 14 are not criminally liable, the only responsibility, obviously, according to the law, is that of their parents, but we are talking about the contraventional sanction, provided by law 61 of 1990, regarding the rules of social coexistence, where parents they are punished for the children’s vagrancy and so on, i.e. the anti-social acts that their children commit. So we are talking about a contravention fine.“, stated Cosmin Andreică.
This despite the fact that at the match between FCSB and Rapid Bucharest, on November 5, 2023, the gendarmes identified 44 supporters who had firecrackers and torches on them, and more than half, 23 of them, were minors.
Abroad, parents cannot be criminally punished for acts committed by children under 14 years of age.
“And in other countries, liability is still of a contraventional nature and not criminal. Because, in criminal law, the responsibility lies with the individual, so we cannot punish someone for what someone else has done, with few exceptions, where, indeed, the law, the crime, is defined in such a way that it says about liability of the parties and is an extended liability.”, explained Cosmin Andreică for “The Truth”.
According to the President of Europol, the situation could represent a kind of “baptism” for teenagers to be welcomed into the galleries.
“It is clear that the galleries also have with them such minors, teenagers, terrorists, who are willing for the sake of those in the gallery, to be liked, to be welcomed in the gallery and then they are tested, that these are the practices in reality, it is like a kind of baptism: “We welcome you to the gallery, but let’s see if you are able to insert three firecrackers”“, highlights this.
More stringent security measures
Cosmin Andreică emphasizes that it is necessary for the security measures to be improved.
“I think the discussion should be about the security measures that the organizers of these matches take, because there is money in the industry, no one can say that there is no money or that important profits are not made. If, however, those who make such profits want to have decency in the stadiums, from the absence of such incidents, clearly, they should take security measures, and these cost“, he emphasizes.
Although there are significant profits in the industry, the responsibility for ensuring a safe environment in stadiums is constantly transferred to the authorities, without the organizers investing in security.
“Unfortunately, all this responsibility is transferred to the authorities, law enforcement institutions, free of charge. And then, of course, as an organizer of a match, it suits me not to pay anything and to know that the gendarmes are coming and it is their responsibility who enters and how they enter. Apart from the fact that, indeed, they have some stewards and they have some security companies, but I think those who were in the stadium saw that it is only their presence, nothing else, they are not interested in other things, they do not even notice the gendarmes, even when they see people entering with prohibited items, they are only interested in not entering with products like: juices, beer and food. The same thing happens at the big concertsno one really cares what is being entered into those spaces, and they only see their commercial interest. They’re more concerned about not getting in with a bottle of juice than seeing if they have an object that might be a pyrotechnic material.”, sasks the president of Europol.
He believes that the enforcement of existing rules must be stricter to prevent violent incidents in stadiums.
“We have rules, but this is really about how they are enforced. And unfortunately, the authorities should be more demanding when it comes to the organizers“, he adds.
Future delinquents
Psychologist Marian Mihalache warns of the long-term negative effects of the influence exerted on children who attend stadiums.
“In the long term, the prognosis is negative. Because they are attracted to an illicit party, through this behavior they will gain public attention, but in a negative way. They will understand that there are aspects of life for which they will never be held accountable, in the sense of assuming wrongdoing, behavior or activity. But here the problem is who is responsible for these behaviors. Parents can answer and gallery heads or adults who influence them can answer, someone has to answer for these kids to be properly guided. Let them understand that when they come of age, they will even be criminally responsible for this kind of actions“, explained the psychologist Mariana Mihalache.
Moreover, the specialist brings into discussion the importance of children’s psycho-emotional maturity and suggests banning the access of minors to stadiums without the supervision of adults from the close family in order to prevent juvenile delinquency.
“The child, if he does not have intellectual, psycho-emotional maturity, will be influenced, he will tend to develop this behavior without properly filtering and analyzing it from his point of view. For the future of the children, someone has to answer now, because, yes, most of these children will turn to delinquency, they will be on the edge of the law“, adds Mariana Mihalache.
However, exposure to violence and negative behavior turns children into victims of a culture of violence promoted by ultras and some football galleries.
“These things are purposely developed by gallery bosses or ultras. Juvenile delinquency is encouraged. What do children learn? That they can scream, swear, set fire, etc., very nasty things. Not to mention the fact that they actually participate in some acts of violence, the gendarmes intervene, the children are part of this show. Children are victims from my point of view.”, said the psychologist Marian Mihalache.
