This is a particularly risky encounter. A week after the violence on the sidelines of the Europa League football match between Ajax Amsterdam and the Maccabi Tel-Aviv club, which sparked international condemnation, the French team will face Israel on Thursday November 14 at the Stade de France.
Despite these clashes in the Netherlands, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, refused to relocate this meeting counting for the League of Nations. “France is not backing down because that would amount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and in the face of anti-Semitism,” he wrote on Friday on necessary for this match to take place at the Stade de France, as usual.”, he added.
A “very unusual” device
This Sunday, November 10, on BFMTV, the Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, detailed the contours of this security system. In total, 4,000 police officers and gendarmes will be mobilized for this match in Saint-Denis, he announced. Such a deployment of law enforcement corresponds to an “extremely reinforced system”, “very unusual” for an international match, indicated the police prefect. The police will be deployed around and, rarely, in the stadium, as well as on public transport and in Paris. Around 1,600 security agents will also be mobilized at the Stade de France and the Raid, the elite unit of the national police, will be engaged for the security of the Israel team, continued Laurent Nuñez.
“It will be a high-risk match,” he said, in “a very tense geopolitical context” and a week after violence in Amsterdam. “We will not tolerate any excesses or disturbances to public order,” declared the police chief. He added that controls for entering the stadium will be “extremely reinforced”, but that the police have not “requested that there be a limited capacity” in the stadium for this League of Nations meeting.
Palestinian flag banned
The first rows of the Stade de France, closest to the pitch, will not be occupied in order to avoid any invasion of the pitch, a police source told AFP. The Stade de France should not be full in any case: this Sunday, the French Federation (FFF) estimated the number of tickets sold for the match at “around 20,000”, very far from the approximately 80,000 places available in the enclosure, while specifying that the ticket office was still open.
“For spectators, there will be a security system around the stadium with double control: at the entrance to the protection perimeter, then at the entrance to the stadium. Each time with identity checks, searches, palpation”, said Laurent Nunez. It is therefore essential to come to the match with an identity document or passport. Any spectator refusing this measure will not be able to enter the stadium. As stated The Parisianit will also be prohibited to enter with a Palestinian flag. Only French and Israeli flags will be admitted. In addition, backpacks will be prohibited, as will all containers with liquid such as bottles or water bottles.