French authorities are set to deploy four thousand security personnel to ensure order at a football match between France and Israel, French media reported.
Paris police said on Sunday that 4,000 police officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed at the France-Israel football match to ensure security in and around the stadium and on public transport, a week after violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam.
France and Israel play on Thursday in a UEFA Nations League match that French President Emmanuel Macron will attend, the Elysee presidential palace said. The president’s entourage said his visit to the match would be “a signal of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts that followed the match in Amsterdam.”
Israel’s National Security Council, in a statement on Sunday, warned citizens abroad to avoid sporting and cultural events, particularly the match in Paris, and to be wary of violent attacks “under the guise of demonstrations.”
“There is a context, tensions that make this match a high-risk event for us,” Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told French news broadcaster BFM TV, adding that authorities “will not tolerate” any violence.
Nunez also said 2,500 police officers would be deployed around the Stade de France stadium, north of the French capital, as well as 1,500 people in Paris and on public transport.
“An anti-terrorist security perimeter will be set up around the stadium,” Nunez said. Security checks will be “intensified,” he added, including systematic searches and bag searches.
Nunez said French organisers were in contact with Israeli authorities and security services to prepare for the match.
Violence after a football game
On Friday, dozens of Israeli fans were attacked in Amsterdam after the Ajax vs Maccabi match in the Europa League. The attacks occurred after several fans removed a Palestinian flag placed outside. One fan was even thrown into the water and forced to say “Palestine will be liberated” before he was able to get out. About 50 people were detained by police following the incident.
However, there is no consensus yet on exactly what started the scuffle. Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis wrote on X:
I call upon the Western media to confirm or deny that the Maccabi football supporters, well before any skirmishes, were marching on the streets on Amsterdam chanting: “There are no schools in Gaza, there are no children left there. F-ck the Arabs.” [They did!]
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed on Friday that the France-Israel match would go ahead as planned.
