FRANCK FIFE / AFP
French and Israeli supporters for the Nations League match between the two national teams at the Stade de France on November 14, 2024.
FOOTBALL – Big cold snap, and it’s not just because winter is coming. The France-Israel match at the Stade de France this Thursday, November 14 did not attract crowds: the stands were even almost empty at kick-off.
Spectators and journalists posted photos and videos on social networks shortly before kick-off and then after. The benches are sparse and the atmosphere is freezing, as you can see below. LCI journalist Antoine Mazère adds that even line 14 of the metro, usually crowded on match nights, is empty.
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While the Saint-Denis stadium can accommodate up to 80,000 people, only 12,000 to 25,000 spectators were expected. According to AFP, this is also the lowest attendance in the history of this stadium for a football match (36,842 spectators for France-New Zealand in 2003).
Fans of the visiting team were scattered throughout the venue, with Israeli flags. Their national anthem triggered a few scattered whistles from part of the public, describes the AFP, present in the stadium.
A little later, a scuffle broke out in the north stand between the supporters. The reasons for the quarrel are not known, but a franceinfo journalist indicates that a cordon of stewards was put in place and that everything “returned to order”.
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“We will not give in to anti-Semitism,” says Macron
It must be said that this meeting is taking place in a very particular context in the middle of the conflict in the Middle East.
Faced with fears of violence, particularly after the violence which followed the Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel-Aviv in Amsterdam, 4,000 police and gendarmes were deployed around the stadium. Rarely, law enforcement officers are also present in the Saint-Denis stadium, as well as on public transport and in Paris.
Despite appeals in particular from La France insoumise, the match was not canceled. “We will not give in to anti-Semitism”for his part assured President Emmanuel Macron on BFMTV before the kick-off of the meeting which he attended in the stands.
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The match also attracted political figures more than football fans, since the Israeli ambassador to France Joshua Zarka was present, alongside former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, as well as presidents of the Hauts-de-France and Île-de-France regions Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse.
At the same time as the match, a demonstration took place with several hundred people demanding that France say “ stop the genocide » in Gaza. The day before, another demonstration was held in the streets of the capital to denounce the “Israel is forever” gala, organized by an association accused of spreading Israeli far-right propaganda.
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