Football: France-Israel, a high-risk and ultra-secure match

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 last week’s violence 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. On Wednesday evening, thousands of people demonstrated in Paris against a controversial gala in support of Israel, which was held in the evening at a secret location in the French capital.

Securing Thursday’s 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 match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, on the night of November 7 to 8 in Amsterdam. Israeli fans 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.

Maccabi fans also stood out before the game by singing anti-Arab chants and burning a Palestinian flag in the central Dam Square.

But there is no question for the French authorities of giving up on organizing the match. The day after the events in Amsterdam, the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau ruled out this possibility, taking the opposite view of Belgium which had refused to welcome Israel on September 6 in Brussels, and had decided to confront his opponent in Debrecen in Hungary.

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 .

“It will be zero tolerance,” police chief Laurent Nuñez promised on RTL radio 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.

Israel, however, called on its supporters on Sunday to avoid going to the Stade de France on Thursday. 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).

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 also be present, according to several media.