France is preparing to host Israel, a high-risk meeting on November 14 at the Stade de France counting for the Football Nations League, a week after clashes between supporters of Ajax Amsterdam and Maccabi Tel-Aviv during a Europa League match.
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Despite these clashes in the Netherlands, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau refused to relocate the meeting. “ France is not backing down, because that would amount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and anti-Semitism “, he wrote Friday on X. “ At my request, the police prefect Laurent Nunez is making the necessary security arrangements for this match to take place at the Stade de France, as usual.. “, he added
There is no no direct threat to the match » France-Israel, a police source confirmed on Thursday. To avoid any overflow, security in and around the Stade de France and its 80,000 seats should be reinforced, with plainclothes police officers in the bays of the Dionysian enclosure.
Twenty-six companies, or around 2,500 mobile gendarmes or police officers, should be requisitioned for this meeting and the hotel where the Israeli selection will stay will be under surveillance. CRS companies will also be distributed throughout the capital, another police source told AFP.
The first rows of the Stade de France, closest to the pitch, will not be occupied, to avoid any invasion of the pitch, said another police source. The Stade de France should not be full anyway, according to this same source.
“ It must remain a football match »
Playing this match in Saint-Denis, in very tight security conditions, “ I don’t know if it was the best solution », Declared for his part the coach Didier Deschamps, returning the ball to his president Philippe Diallo.
“ Is it good? Isn’t that good? What I can tell you is that it must remain a football match, without ignoring or ignoring a political and other context which is very tense.commented Didier Deschamps. I am not involved in this decision-making. It’s not my role “.
The Minister responsible for Europe Benjamin Haddad in any case urged on Friday not to show “ no weakness, no cowardice in the face of anti-Semitism » after the violence in Amsterdam.
On Monday, around forty demonstrators from the “Stop Genocide” association entered the FFF premises to protest against the holding of this match and to demand that Israel be banned from competitions by Fifa.
A few days later, before PSG’s defeat against Atletico Madrid (2-1) in the Champions League, the Collectif ultras Paris rolled out a tifo with the message “Free Palestine”, around the red and blue colors of the PSG, with a bloody Palestinian flag, the flag of Lebanon, tanks or even a person wearing a keffiyeh. The immense canvas bearing drawings and covering the entire Auteuil stand topped a banner “ War on the ground, but peace in the world “.
Also readNetherlands: Maccabi Tel-Aviv supporters attacked on the sidelines of a Europa League match