No incident during the France match

The meeting is maintained, but the tension is still palpable. The football match between France and Israel took place at the Stade de France this Thursday, November 14. A decision endorsed by the Minister of the Interior, despite fears about possible anti-Semitic violence and requests for cancellations made by certain politicians, in particular elected officials from La France insoumise. Tensions reignited by the violence that occurred in Amsterdam last Thursday after a match between Maccabi Tel-Avi and Ajax.

The France and Israel teams played their Nations League match in front of spectators in the stands. But the meeting was marked by an ultra-reinforced presence of law enforcement: 4,000 police officers and gendarmes were deployed around the Stade de France and in Paris. In detail, 2,500 people secure the stadium grounds, helped by the presence of 1,600 stewards mobilized by the French Football Federation inside the infrastructure. The other 1,500 members of the police patrol public transport and certain areas of the capital frequented by supporters. The French and Ile-de-France authorities have taken three strong measures to secure this match:

• A preventive and drastic security system around the stadium: closure of businesses, including restaurants and bars, which surround the stadium square from 3:45 p.m., five hours before the match, in order to avoid gatherings as much as possible. Access to the Stade de France is also secure with double control [et] a security perimeter around the anti-terrorist stadium.
• A very strict protocol for entering the stadium: to access the enclosure you must present your tickets which are strictly nominative as well as an identity document. A search and pat-down are also obligatory to allow each individual to enter the stadium. Several items were also banned: backpacks, liquid containers such as bottles, water bottles or cans as well as Palestinian flags. Only French and Israeli flags will be authorized to support the teams present on the field.
• In the stadium, gates have been installed at the foot of all the stands, to prevent any intrusion onto the pitch and prevent disruption of the match. These grids were placed at the foot of the turns during the Coupe de France final, in 2016, between OM and PSG, but only in the turns.

Only 20,000 supporters expected

Israel also sent a very firm message, strongly recommending nationals of the Jewish state to avoid the meeting and not to go to Saint-Denis for this match. 20,000 people were expected at the Stade de France for the Blues’ match against the Israeli team, very few compared to the capacity of 80,000 seats. The record for the worst attendance would then be broken. And of these thousands of supporters, only 100 to 150 sat in the Israeli stands accessible to people who purchased their tickets from the Israel Football Federation. Among these, some made the trip from the Jewish state on purpose.

It is to protect these supporters of anti-Semitic violence, and more broadly to avoid any confrontation on the sidelines of the match, that so many police forces were mobilized. “We must at all costs avoid having the same scenes at home,” explained a security source to Parisian. “We will be watched all over the world. It’s almost like the Olympics: you can’t miss it.”