beyond football, an evening that takes on security issues

As every year since 1998, the Stade de France (Seine-Saint-Denis) hosts the final of the French Football Cup. More than in previous editions, the security context will be scrutinized closely, Saturday April 29, on the sidelines of the meeting between FC Nantes, defending champion, and Toulouse FC.

Delayed match, violence, intrusions, supporters turned back with tear gas… The last time the Dionysian enclosure was the scene of the final of a football competition, that of the Champions League, on May 28, 2022, the evening had turned into a fiasco.

Some 3,000 police and gendarmes will be mobilized, for the occasion, around the Stade de France. A device that will be « 50 % plus important » than that of last year for the final of the most prestigious of European competitions, between the English of Liverpool and the Spaniards of Real Madrid, we know in the entourage of the Minister of the Interior. In addition, the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, will be on Saturday at the security PC inside the enclosure.

It should be remembered that it was not the number of police or gendarmes that was missing during the 2022 Champions League. Nor a large number of spectators without tickets, as the Minister of the Interior had wrongly claimed. , Gérald Darmanin, after the meeting. That evening, the adaptation and organization of the reception and security arrangements had failed, causing in particular a bottleneck for thousands of Liverpool supporters, who had headed for the stadium from the train station. RER D.

A rivalry between ultras

According The team, who attended a meeting on Wednesday in the office of the Minister of the Interior, this final of the Coupe de France worries the authorities, who fear excesses and fights. In question: the antagonism between certain fringes of ultras – these fans involved in the show with songs and visual animations in the stadium – of the two clubs.

Saturday, in Saint-Denis, 20,000 supporters of each team are expected in the bends of the stadium, which has around 80,000 seats. Most of them will come to Paris by bus. Toulouse residents will then have to reach the enclosure by train via the RER D; the people of Nantes by B.

The objective is to prevent the most radical supporters from crossing paths. From Saturday morning, inform The team, the Brigade Loire – the group of ultras from Nantes – will thus be taken care of by the gendarmerie at the Saint-Arnoult tollbooth (Yvelines), while the Indians Tolosa – the group of ultras from Toulouse – will be taken care of a little upstream on a motorway rest area; both will later be grouped together in a different space in Saint-Denis.

Grids will also be set up in the bends of the Stade de France to “avoiding land invasion”said a police source quoted by Agence France-Presse.

A tense social climate

Added to this rivalry between ultra supporters is a tense social climate. Around the stadium, the unions plan to distribute red cards and whistles to spectators to show their rejection of the pension reform and their dissatisfaction with the head of state. As a reminder, two days later, Monday 1^is May, a large-scale mobilization is expected in the streets.

According to the entourage of the Minister of the Interior, the President of the Republic will attend the match this Saturday. Unlike last year, before the final won (1-0) by Nantes against OGC Nice and as is customary, Emmanuel Macron should not go down to the lawn this time to greet the players.

The government spokesman, Olivier Véran, regretted on Friday the stormy welcome promised by the unions to the head of state. “The final of the Coupe de France is not Roman-style circus games, it is not the CGT with its imperial thumb that could decide who to boo the President of the Republic, who to cut off the electricity during a match », he said on BFM-TV and RMC. Thursday, a voluntary power cut, claimed by the CGT, plunged into darkness and interrupted the Pro D2 match between Agen and Nevers for half an hour.