There are unforgettable football evenings that must be experienced from the stands of a stadium, and Didier Deschamps’ French team has offered several to its supporters in recent years. This Thursday, November 14 will undoubtedly not be one of them, and everything, from the content of the match against Israel (0-0) to the sad atmosphere in the aisles of the Stade de France, will be forgotten in the sporting history of the Blues . It will just be necessary to remember that with this draw point, the latter have validated their qualification for the quarter-finals of the League of Nations.
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Very little consolation for the 16,611 people present in the stands, which constitutes the lowest attendance in the grounds of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) during a match of the French team, outside the period of Covid-19. Many of the usual Blues supporters skipped this meeting, discouraged by the security situation. “heavy”as Didier Deschamps described it, or sometimes guided by the desire to boycott this international meeting, due to the Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip following the attacks of October 7.
They were spared a match of infinite sadness, unlike the political figures who came in large numbers. From this meeting, Prime Minister Michel Barnier and President Emmanuel Macron, present like his predecessors François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, will surely remember more the draconian security measures put in place by the authorities than the lackluster game of the Tricolores.
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Around the Stade de France, the police were more numerous than the supporters dressed in jerseys or flags. “This meeting presents a strong risk of disturbances to public order, due to the international geopolitical context”noted the police headquarters in an internal note. Police officers and gendarmes were mobilized in large numbers around and in the stadium, where the atmosphere was hardly one of festivities – bars and restaurants closed.
Two kilometers away, on the Place du Front-Populaire in Saint-Denis, several hundred people gathered against the holding of the meeting, denouncing Israel’s armed intervention in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Rising against “a second-rate match” receiving “the presence of President Macron, the Prime Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande”Eric Coquerel, deputy (La France insoumise) for Seine-Saint-Denis, vilified the message sent by the French executive: “France is looking elsewhere. This is purely a scandal. »
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