France-Israel match: It is a “good decision to maintain” the meeting, believes Frédéric Péchenard

For Frédéric Péchenard, vice-president of Les Républicains of the Ile-de-France region in charge of security, it is a “good decision to keep the match going” scheduled for Thursday November 14th between France and Israel at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis.

**>> The France-Israel match will be played in “a heavy and heavy context”, regrets Didier Deschamps

**For the former director general of the national police, guest of franceinfo evening, France is “a free, democratic country is Football”. According to him, “sport must transcend all political problems.” “We must maintain matches with spectators as long as possiblehe continues. Nobody asked the question at the time of the Olympics whether we were going to ban people. We have to make this possible.”

Frédéric Péchenard wants to be reassuring. He assures that “the police are used to securing the Stade de France for all matches which are risky and complicated so that should not pose a problem”. He recognizes that there is a “pression” special on this match with “what's happening in the Middle East”. Pressure also due “what happened last week in Amsterdam”he adds in reference to the violent incidents that occurred on the sidelines of the trip of the Israeli team Maccabi Tel Aviv to Amsterdam for a Europa Football League match against Ajax Amsterdam.

“Things were done in a big way”

For the meeting scheduled for Thursday evening, “the Minister of the Interior and the Paris Police Prefect have taken all possible measures so that this match takes place in good conditions and that we do not witness excesses and anti-Semitic attacks as we have been able to do see in Amsterdam”assures the LR vice-president of the Ile-de-France region who recalls that “the danger is not only present during the match” but also in public transport where “there are all the flows”.

Asked about the presence in particular of Emmanuel Macron or even François Hollande during the sports meeting, Frédéric Péchenard confirms that there will be very prominent personalities and that each time this is the case, “It makes it a little more complicated [les choses] because it is necessary to provide an additional order service”. “But therehe continues_, I believe that things were done on a grand scale: 4,000 police officers, the Raid on site to secure the interior and the Israeli team…”_ A device qualified as “out of the norm” more “normal given the risks that weigh”. “So that we realize, normally an important match brings together 1,000 police officers”he concludes.