The Israeli national team landed at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport this Monday, early in the afternoon. The Israeli delegation settled in a hotel not far from the airport and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, quickly served by the highway. Thursday evening (8:45 p.m.), the France – Israel match, an ordinary Nations League match, will be supervised and played in exceptional security conditions, due to the situation in the Middle East. A match which Emmanuel Macron decided to attend.
There is talk of the deployment of an extraordinary system of 4,000 police officers and gendarmes. The level of vigilance is supposed to exceed the measures in force during the last Olympic Games in Paris last summer. An anti-terrorist security perimeter is notably around the Stade de France.
According to information from L’Equipe, Israeli players will also train in Val-d’Oise, in a stadium in the south of the department, starting this Monday. On Wednesday, the day before the match, they will benefit, as usual, from a training session on the pitch at the Stade de France, in the early evening, after Didier Deschamps’ players.
The National Division for the Fight against Hooliganism (DNLH, an emanation of the Ministry of the Interior) classified this match as very high risk, i.e. at a maximum level of 5. A categorization which had been decided even before the serious incidents which occurred in Amsterdam, Thursday evening, on the sidelines of the Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
After the said violence, Israeli authorities on Sunday called on supporters to avoid going to the France-Israel match on Thursday evening. next in Paris, following the violence which occurred in Amsterdam on the sidelines of another sporting event. This violence, which sparked reactions of indignation around the world, led to five temporary hospitalizations and around sixty arrests, according to the Dutch police.
“The National Security Council recommends that Israelis abroad act by taking precautions (…) particularly during the coming week, to completely avoid going to sporting events and cultural events in which Israelis participate , especially at the next match of the Israel team in Paris,” this organization which reports to the Prime Minister’s office said in a press release.
