It is in a heated context that the Fance team is preparing to host Israel this Thursday at the Stade de France. If the thesis of a relocation of the meeting has been gaining ground for a long time, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, has finally brushed aside the idea. “Some are calling for the France-Israel match to be relocated. I do not accept it: France is not backing down because that would amount to abdicating in the face of threats of violence and anti-Semitism”he declared on X on Friday, the day after the violent clashes in Amsterdam. This Sunday on BFMthe Paris police prefect, Laurent Nuñez, also spoke about this high-tension meeting, and he wanted to reassure about the ultra-reinforced security system planned.
“Security in the evening of France-Israel will be around the stadium, the immediate surroundings, public transport. The lesson from Amsterdam is that you have to be present everywhere. We work with safety. This is a high-risk match. We are committing a very substantial and unusual volume of personnel for this type of match (…) There is a context, tensions, which mean that this match will be high risk for us. We are working on an extremely reinforced system. Spectators will be able to attend this match in complete safety. I want to reassure those who are listening to us and at the same time display a message of firmness: we will not tolerate any excesses. We will have means that will allow us to be extremely reactive to prevent any disturbance to public order, either during the match, the surroundings of the match or the path of spectators. There will be double control, a security perimeter around the anti-terrorist stadium. 4000 people will be on the system. There will be 1,600 security agents also hired by the FFF, on average it is 1,200/1,300 for sold-out Blues matches.
