These security arrangements come a week after violence broke out in Amsterdam after the European League match that included the Israeli club Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Key facts
- Paris Police Chief Laurent Nunez told local channel France Info that about 4,000 police and security officers will be deployed in and around the Stade de France football stadium and on public transport throughout Paris.
- Nunez said that an elite tactical unit from France’s elite national police RAID has been assigned to the security of the visiting Israeli national team.
- “It is an extraordinary measure, three to four times larger than what we usually mobilize,” Nunez told RTL radio on Wednesday, according to Reuters news agency.
- He said that only the French and Israeli flags would be allowed to be raised inside the stadium, which effectively means banning the presence of Palestinian flags in the match.
- French media reports indicate that fan turnout for Thursday’s match will be low, with only 20,000 fans expected to watch the game in the 80,000-capacity stadium.
- Police will accompany about 150 Israeli fans who came to watch the match, while French President Emmanuel Macron will also reportedly attend the match alongside his predecessors Francois Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy.
- In a post on X, French police announced they had permission to deploy drones equipped with cameras across the city to monitor crowds on Thursday and Friday, although it is unclear whether the drones will be present throughout Paris.
- Pro-Palestinian protests are scheduled to take place in Saint-Denis Square in Paris hours before Thursday night’s match, which Nunez said there were discussions to move it further away.
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