Paris: Paris police announced Sunday that 4,000 officers and 1,600 stadium staff will be deployed for the France-Israel football match to ensure security at the stadium, on public transportation, and in surrounding areas, after violence against Israeli fans in Amsterdam last week.
France and Israel are set to play a UEFA Nations League match on Thursday.
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez said on BFM TV, “There’s a context, tensions that make that match a high-risk event for us,” adding authorities “won’t tolerate” any violence.
Nuñez said that 2,500 police officers would be deployed around the Stade de France, with an additional 1,500 officers stationed in Paris and on public transportation.
“There will be an anti-terrorist security perimeter around the stadium,” Nuñez added. Security checks will be “reinforced,” he added, including with systematic pat-downs and bag searches.
Nuñez said French organizers have been in touch with Israeli authorities and security forces to prepare for the match.
Israeli fans were assaulted last week after a soccer game in Amsterdam by hordes of young people apparently riled up by calls on social media to target Jewish people, according to Dutch authorities. Five people were treated at hospitals and dozens were arrested after the attacks, which were condemned as anti-Semitic by authorities in Amsterdam, Israel and across Europe.
On Sunday, Dutch police detained several people for taking part in a demonstration in central Amsterdam that had been outlawed following the violence targeting Israeli fans, a local broadcaster reported.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has confirmed on Friday that the France-Israel match would go ahead as planned.
“I think that for a symbolic reason we must not yield, we must not give up,” he said, noting that sports fans from around the world came together for the Paris Olympics this year to celebrate the “universal values” of sports.
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