The stand of honor will, however, be very full. 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 should also be present.
Israel on Sunday called on its supporters to avoid going to the Stade de France this evening. The venue of Saint-Denis, in the Paris suburbs, will in any case ring particularly hollow since only 12,000 to 25,000 spectators are expected. We are therefore heading towards the lowest attendance in the history of this stadium (36,842 spectators for France-New Zealand in 2003).
“It will be zero tolerance,” police prefect Laurent Nuñez promised on RTL on Wednesday, specifying that only the French and Israeli flags will be allowed in the stadium. Palestinian banners, as well as “messages of a political nature” will be banned, he said.
The Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau has decided to pull out all the stops to avoid excesses. 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 on Monday .
Hello everyone. Mixing politics, geopolitics and sport, it is a particularly explosive cocktail which will be served this Thursday evening at the Stade de France. The Blues are indeed hosting Israel in the middle of the conflict in the Middle East. An exceptional security system has therefore been put in place in order to avoid reliving the violence of last week on the sidelines of a Maccabi Tel-Aviv match in Amsterdam. Before tonight's high-risk match, the editorial staff of 20 Minutes will therefore be mobilizing all day to give you the latest information on this meeting which goes beyond the simple sporting framework.
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