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A heavy police presence is expected but few visiting fans are expected when France hosts Israel in Nations League football on Thursday, a week after violence erupted in Amsterdam over the visit of an Israeli team.
French police chief Laurent Nuñez said 4,000 police and security personnel would be deployed around the Stade de France, with another 1,500 on public transport.
The Parisian authorities are on high alert after the violence in Amsterdam before and after the Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. According to Dutch authorities, fans from both sides were involved in the unrest. The attacks on Maccabi fans caused outrage and were widely condemned as anti-Semitic.
“What we have learned from Amsterdam is that we must be present in public spaces before and after the match, even far away from the stadium,” Nuñez told French news channel France Info on Thursday.
Three months after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games, the atmosphere has gone from festive to eerie and the national stadium was expected to be three-quarters empty for the match. French President Emmanuel Macron and French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau will be present.
Former French presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy will also be present.
“We will not give in to anti-Semitism anywhere. And violence, even in the French Republic, will never prevail, nor will intimidation,” Macron told the BFM TV channel.
Only 20,000 of the 80,000 tickets were sold, and around 150 supporters of the Israeli team were reportedly present, escorted by police.
“We have tried to prepare for this match as normally as possible. But of course none of us within the team can be insensitive to such a tough context,” French coach Didier Deschamps said on Wednesday. “It affects the amount of supporters who will be present tomorrow and everything that comes with it.”
Amsterdam banned demonstrations for three days from Friday, while police were given emergency stop and search powers after overnight attacks on Israeli football supporters. Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv were “attacked, assaulted and pelted with fireworks” by what she described as “anti-Semitic hit-and-run squads.”
The away match against Israel on October 10 – which France won 4-1 – was played in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.
“These are situations that the players are not used to,” Deschamps said. “But we have to adapt.”
The low number of visiting fans comes after Israel's National Security Council warned citizens abroad to avoid sporting and cultural events, especially the match in Paris.
Retailleau told French news channel TF1 on Tuesday that no specific threats have been identified but that “there is no risk”. That is why, according to him, exceptional measures have been taken “before the match, during the match and after the match.”
The elite tactical unit of the French National Police, known as RAID, will be present at the stadium, and some police officers will mingle with fans in plain clothes. There will also be heavy surveillance in Paris, including on Jewish places of worship and schools.
Recurrence of violence 'exclusively', says the minister
“There is no way we will risk seeing a repeat of the dramatic events, of the manhunt, that we saw in Amsterdam,” Retailleau said, adding that postponing or moving the game elsewhere was ruled out.
“France will not submit and the France-Israel match will take place where it should be,” he said.
In Amsterdam, some Maccabi fans attacked a taxi and chanted anti-Arab slogans, while some men carried out 'hit and run' attacks on people they thought were Jews, Mayor Femke Halsema said.
After the match, parts of a large group of Maccabi supporters armed with sticks ran around “destroying things”, according to a 12-page report on the violence by Amsterdam authorities.
There were also “rioters, who moved in small groups on foot, by scooter or by car and quickly attacked Maccabi fans before disappearing,” the report said.
Protests broke out in Paris on Wednesday evening against a controversial gala organized by far-right figures in support of Israel.
The match in Saint-Denis, the suburb north of Paris, starts at 8:45 p.m. local time.
Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof condemned the violent attacks on Israeli football fans in Amsterdam on Thursday evening. Video showed some Israelis tearing down a Palestinian flag and chanting anti-Arab slogans the day before, suggesting tensions were simmering.
At 6 p.m. local time, a pro-Palestinian demonstration is organized in a square in Saint-Denis to protest against the match.
Nine years ago, Stade de France was one of several locations during the November 13 terrorist attacks that killed 130 people. France was playing Germany that evening when two explosions occurred outside the stadium.
Deschamps, Germany coach Joachim Löw and all the players stayed together in the changing rooms for hours until it was safe to leave.
“It's a sad date for us, given what happened in 2015,” Deschamps said.
