Trouble broke out in the stands during France’s game against Israel in the Nations League despite local authorities beefing up security for the match.
Video footage showed two groups of supporters goading each other before a scuffle erupted, with one set of fans charging at the other. A number of people were seen moving away from the violence, which took place during the first half of the game.
According to RMC Sport, the unsavoury incident lasted for two minutes and took place in the stand where Israel fans were located. The report states that around 50 people were involved, with stewards intervening to form a cordon and restore order.
It is said that after the violence had died down, a group of Israel supporters began chanting: “Free the hostages, free the hostages.”
The match at the Stade de France was deemed a high-risk fixture, with authorities deploying an increased number of police officers. There were a large number of empty seats in the ground with fewer than 20,000 tickets being sold for the 80,000-capacity stadium.
Authorities took measures to prevent violence from breaking out after the hooliganism and antisemitism faced by Israeli supporters when Maccabi Tel Aviv played Ajax last week.
Laurent Nunez, chief of French police, said his officers would learn from the scenes which unfolded in the Netherlands when it came to dealing with any potential unrest.
“What we learned from Amsterdam is that we need to be present in the public space including far away from the stadium,” he said, according to The Telegraph.
Several pro-Palestine protests, attended by hundreds of people, took place in Paris in the hours before the match. In the stadium, some fans were heard whistling the Israeli anthem as it was played in the stadium prior to kick-off.
Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was in attendance and told TV channel BFMTV before the game: “We will not give in to antisemitism anywhere. Violence, including in the French Republic, will never prevail, nor will intimidation.”
