The French soccer team receives Israel on Thursday at the Stade de France, near Paris, for a match protected by exceptional security in a climate tense by the conflict in the Middle East and the recent violence on the sidelines of a Maccabi meeting from Tel Aviv to Amsterdam.
The pressure is high before this important meeting for the League of Nations, the sporting stakes of which are largely eclipsed by its geopolitical dimension.
A total of 4,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed around the amphitheater, and rare, inside, as well as on public transport and in the capital.
Europe has faced 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 supporters were chased and beaten in the streets of the Dutch capital, attacks that left between 20 and 30 injured and sparked outrage among many Western nations.
Maccabi supporters also distinguished themselves before the game by singing anti-Arab chants and burning a Palestinian flag in the central Dam Square.
The French authorities, however, have categorically ruled out giving up the match, or relocating it as Belgium did in September.
Relocate the match would amount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and anti-Semitism
defended French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau last Friday on X.
In addition to the police, around 1,600 security agents will also be mobilized at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
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.
Only French and Israeli flags will be allowed in the stadium. Palestinian banners, as well as political messages
will be banned, indicated the prefect of police Laurent Nuñez.
Any other flag, even from French regions, will be banned, said a police source.
Israel called on its supporters on Sunday to avoid going to the Stade de France, but around a hundred Israeli supporters will be present, according to a police source.
I obviously tell them to come. All safety conditions are guaranteed in transport, at the entrance to the stadium, during the match. So, I want to be both reassuring, but at the same time very firm. For those who want to cause trouble, the response from the internal security forces will be extremely strong
declared Thursday Mr. Nuñez on France Info.
On Wednesday evening, thousands of people demonstrated in Paris against a gala in support of Israel organized by far-right Franco-Israeli personalities, and more generally against the policy pursued by the Israeli government in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. The window of a McDonald’s, target of the demonstrators, was damaged.
Thursday evening, the Saint-Denis enclosure (80,000 seats) risks ringing hollow with only 12,000 to 25,000 spectators expected. We are heading towards the lowest attendance in the history of this stadium (36,842 spectators for France-New Zealand in 2003).
You have to go see this match, because it has become a symbol that goes beyond sport, an almost political symbol of affirmation in the face of anti-Semitism, of republican affirmation in short.
said Yonathan Arfi, the president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF), saying he they are restless and watchful
.
The grandstand will 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 those around him.
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 pitch, the Blues of Didier Deschamps, deprived for the second month in a row of their captain and star 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.
Even without Mbappé or Ousmane Dembélé, injured in the thigh, the task should not be insurmountable, a month after a 4-1 victory over these same Israelis in Budapest.
