High-risk match: The Raid committed for the safety of the Israel team – Pressure mounts in Paris

The French team receives Israel in a very tense atmosphere, Thursday at the Stade de France where an exceptional security system has been put in place in the middle of the conflict in the Middle East, in a climate exacerbated by the violence of last week on the sidelines of a Maccabi Tel-Aviv match in Amsterdam.

The pressure is at its peak before this important meeting for the League of Nations, the sporting stakes of which are largely eclipsed by the geopolitical context.

Securing the match has become a major issue as Europe faces a rise in racist and anti-Semitic acts since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.

Fears of excesses were reinforced after the serious incidents which followed the Europa League meeting between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv.

But there is no question for the French authorities of giving up on organizing the match.

The Raid committed for the security of the Israel team

“Some are calling for the France-Israel match to be relocated. I do not accept it: 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 X on Friday.

A total of 4,000 police officers and gendarmes will be deployed around and, rarely, in the stadium, as well as on public transport and throughout 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, is committed to the security of the Israel team, locked in a bubble since its arrival in France Monday.

Palestinian banners banned

Only French and Israeli flags will be allowed in the stadium and Palestinian banners, as well as “messages of a political nature” will be banned, indicated police prefect Laurent Nuñez. Any other flag, even from French regions, will be banned, said a police source.

Israel called on its fans on Sunday to avoid going to the Stade de France but a “hundred Israeli supporters” will be present, according to a police source.

The Saint-Denis enclosure (80,000 seats) will in any case ring particularly hollow since only 12,000 to 25,000 spectators are expected.

With Macron, Sarkozy, Hollande, but without Mbappé

The stand of honor will, however, be well filled. The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron will be there, to “send a message of fraternity and solidarity after the intolerable anti-Semitic acts which followed the match in Amsterdam”, according to his entourage.

His two predecessors, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande, as well as Prime Minister Michel Barnier will attend the match, according to several media.

On the field, the Blues of Didier Deschamps, deprived for the second month in a row of their captain and superstar Kylian Mbappé, will try to get their ticket to the quarter-finals of the League of Nations. Second in their group, they only need a draw to qualify.