A skirmish involving Israel fans broke out in the stands of the Stade de France during a tense match between Israel and France’s men’s football teams, but a heavy police presence ensured a repeat of the serious violence in Amsterdam was avoided.
The game had been designated as “high risk” after the hooliganism and antisemitism witnessed in the Netherlands before and after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.
The Israeli national anthem was booed by some in the crowd before kick-off and, within 10 minutes of the game starting, a small number of fans clashed on a high stand in the stadium.
The clash was quickly dealt with by the security guards, with riot police seen at the edge of the stands ready to intervene. The authorities in Paris had been on high alert.
Emmanuel Macron, who attended the game with his interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, and the prime minister, Michel Barnier, in an act of solidarity with the victims of antisemitism, said France would not accept discrimination. Former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy were also in the stands to watch the goalless draw.
Macron told the French TV channel BFMTV: “We will not give in to antisemitism anywhere and violence, including in the French Republic, will never prevail, nor will intimidation.”
There were fewer than 20,000 people in the Stade de France at the Uefa Nations League match, making it the lowest attendance recorded in the 80,000-capacity stadium.
Patrick Bensimon, a co-founder of the NGO Diaspora Defense Forces, said he had organised for 600 Israel fans to be transported to the stadium in chartered buses under police escort.
He said: “80% of the people who are here did not want to go to the Stade de France. Some were afraid, especially following the events in Amsterdam.”
One Israel fan draped in the Israeli flag told reporters outside the stadium before the game: “We want to show that we are not afraid of anyone, except God.”
His friend said “we shouldn’t mix sport and politics” and that they hoped “there won’t be any scuffles outside the stadium”.
Despite the low attendance, about 4,000 police officers were on the streets around the stadium along with 1,600 security personnel.
Israel’s government had instructed its nationals to avoid the game amid heightened tensions.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration around 2km from the stadium outside the Front Populaire Métro station in St-Denis attracted a few hundred protesters. They marched in the direction of the stadium but were turned around by riot police.
Éric Coquerel, an MP for Seine-Saint-Denis and a member of the leftwing France Unbowed party, said: “We are living in a schizophrenic moment. On the one hand, international institutions recognise the existence of a genocide in Gaza. On the other, we have a French government that reluctantly agrees to call for a ceasefire.
“This match, which everyone knows is second rate, is attended by President Macron, the prime minister, Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande. How do you expect Benjamin Netanyahu to hear any message other than: ‘You can continue to raze Gaza’? France is looking the other way.
“This is purely a scandal. Let’s imagine a France-Russia match. Would Emmanuel Macron have honoured this encounter with his presence? Obviously not. While in both cases there are two aggressor countries.”
The French police chief Laurent Nuñez said his officers had learned from the scenes in the Netherlands. “What we learned is that we need to be present in the public space, including far away from the stadium,” he said.
Ticket sales ended at 11am on Thursday and fans had been warned they would not be allowed to bring any bags into the stadium. A wide security perimeter was enforced around the venue.
Only the French and Israeli national flags were allowed into the ground and fans were thoroughly searched as they went through checkpoints outside the stadium.
Concerns had been raised after riot police clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters on Wednesday night outside a gala event in Paris where funds were being raised for the Israeli military. Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, had been due to speak but subsequently cancelled.
Police pushed against dozens of protesters waving Palestinian flags and lighting flares near St-Lazare station, and reports suggested teargas had been deployed as officers struggled to contain the crowds.
Amid international condemnation of the violence in Amsterdam last week, a report published by the city’s mayor, Femke Halsema, suggested the cause had been a “toxic cocktail of antisemitism, football hooliganism and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel and other parts of the Middle East”.
