The French team receives Israel on Thursday at the Stade de France, in a very tense context with an exceptional security system in the middle of the conflict in the Middle East, a week after the violence that occurred in Amsterdam on the sidelines of a Maccabi Tel-Aviv match .
The purely sporting issue of this meeting in the League of Nations is largely overshadowed by the geopolitical context. Securing this match, described as “high risk” by police prefect Laurent Nuñez, has become a major problem as Europe faces an increase in racist and anti-Semitic acts since the start of the war between Israel and Israel. Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas in Gaza in October 2023.
Fears have increased after the excesses which followed the Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, on the night of November 7 to 8 in Amsterdam. Israeli supporters were chased and beaten in the streets of the Dutch capital, attacks that left 20 to 30 injured and sparked outrage in many Western capitals.
Isolated incidents had erupted before the game, including anti-Arab chants chanted by Maccabi fans.
However, there is no question for the French authorities of relocating the match like Belgium, which had given up hosting Israel on September 6 in Brussels, and had decided to face its opponent in Debrecen in Hungary.
“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,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau posted on X the day after the events in Amsterdam.
The deployment of law enforcement will thus be “very unusual” for an international meeting, explained Mr. Nuñez. 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.
One point to qualify
“We feel quite safe here, there are a lot of security forces around us. They are doing the right thing and I am focusing on the match,” Israeli coach Ran Ben Shimon said in a video released Tuesday by his federation.
Israel, however, called on its supporters on Sunday to avoid going to the Stade de France on Thursday. The Saint-Denis venue will ring particularly hollow in any case since the Minister of Sports Gil Avérous estimated Wednesday on Europe 1 the number of places sold for the meeting at “25,000”. The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau spoke of “a very small gauge” between “12,000 and 13,000 people” on BFMTV. We are therefore heading towards the lowest attendance in the history of this stadium (36,842 spectators for France-New Zealand in 2003).
The match will, however, take place under the eyes of the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, who wishes 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 also be present, 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 one point to qualify.
“We made sure to prepare for this match as normally as possible, but obviously, no one can be insensitive to the context which is heavy and heavy,” Deschamps said on Wednesday at a press conference.
Even without Mbappé, the task should only be a formality, a month after an easy success against the same Israelis in Budapest (4-1). Beyond the security aspect, the shadow of the attacker, who accumulates setbacks (failed Euro-2024, financial conflict with PSG, laborious integration into Real Madrid, accusations of rape emanating from the Swedish press), will loom large necessarily in Saint-Denis.
In October, Mbappé’s defection did not have too much impact on the performance of the vice-world champions, victorious over Israel and Belgium in Brussels (2-1). Even if Deschamps must also do without the services of Ousmane Dembélé, injured in the thigh, and will have to reshape his offensive sector, he has all the cards in his hands to secure qualification before completing this group stage and the year 2024 against Italy, Sunday in Milan.
