Eight men were arrested on the night of Monday 12 to Tuesday 13 september in Marseille for “prohibited carrying of a weapon”, “contempt against the police” and “violence against the police”, indicated Tuesday September 13 to franceinfo the prefect of police of Bouches-du-Rhône, Frédérique Camilleri. These arrests took place on the eve of the Champions League football match between Olympique de Marseille and Frankfurt, qualified as a match at “risk” by the prefect.
In detail, seven of these men are Marseille supporters. The eighth is a German supporter. The arrests took place in two stages: first around 9 p.m.in the city center“then around 1 a.m.,”on the Old Port“, she says to franceinfo.
#OMFRA ⚽️ I Police intervention @PoliceNat13 to prevent clashes between opposing fans in the city center #Marseille.
❌ Already 5 arrests made pic.twitter.com/uddDGg05ju– Prefect of police of Bouches-du-Rhône (@prefpolice13) September 12, 2022
This Monday evening, groups of Marseille and German supporters were present in the city center. They sought to confront each other. The confrontation was avoided by the intervention of the security forces who dispersed the groups.
The meeting this Tuesday evening, at the Vélodrome stadium, is a match “at risk, firstly because of the crowds“, she explains. Thus, “the stadium is thought to be full, with over 60,000 Marseilles and 3,300 Germans having tickets“. To these must be added “several thousand Germans, probably up to 5,000 who will not have tickets, but who will travel to Marseille“. Among them there will be “probably 300 to 500 ultras“.
Confronted with this, “we will engage more than a thousand police and gendarmes throughout the day“, she indicates. In other words, the device will increase in power since “already last night [lundi soir]more than 300 police officers were hired to ensure security in the city center“, what “helped to avoid direct clashes between opposing supporters“.
High-risk OM-Frankfurt match: “The stadium will be full, more than 60,000 Marseilles, 3,300 Germans with tickets” and probably up to “5,000” without, including “300 to 500 ultras”. “More than 1,000 police and gendarmes are mobilized”, warns the prefect Frédérique Camilleri. pic.twitter.com/2qDbVvfb3P
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) September 13, 2022
“The objective of our system is to define a meeting point in the city center, where the Germans can come and be transported in a secure way to the stadium for those who have tickets. Those who don’t have tickets are advised to stay outside the city center, and that’s why we have saturated the city center with very many police forces.“, she also explains.
“It’s a match that has been the subject of many preparatory meetings with the two clubs, with the German consulate as well, so I think that here we are ready to face this event.“, still assures the prefect.