All that was missing was victory and the evening would have been ideal. Six days after the chaos in the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool (1-0) at the Stade de France, the stated objective of the Ministry of the Interior and the Paris police headquarters was to rectify the situation, Friday June 3, during the League of Nations match between France and Denmark.
An increased security system had been put in place for the occasion: 2,080 police officers and gendarmes mobilized for this meeting, including 656 dedicated to the fight against crime, while numerous snatching thefts were reported last Saturday. A significant number of police forces for a match that did not present any major risk. “But we never get bored”retorts a policeman near the stadium.
The police, however, had a relatively quiet evening on the Saint-Denis plain. Their number was visible from the exit of the metro or the RER, with dozens of officers in uniform, sometimes in civilian clothes, present up to the forecourt of the Stade de France. Close to the latter, the filtering of supporters, questioned during the C1 final, was done without incident.
“Less than three minute wait“, welcomes a supporter of the Blues, like a member of the security: “There are not many people at the same time, we manage to manage the flow well.“It must be said that the supporters showed up in advance, as the Paris police headquarters had advised the day before. The filtering thus began at 4 p.m., an unusually premature hour for a meeting at the Stade de France.
As a result, long queues quickly formed at the gate entrances around the stadium. But no movement of the crowd and impatience on the part of the supporters, because the atmosphere was, as often during the matches of the French team, family. Many children were thus present despite the images of last week, where Liverpool supporters were subjected to tear gas.
“We did not hesitate to come“, launch Nicolas and Amandine, who came to attend this meeting with their 9-year-old daughter, who wears a Karim Benzema jersey on her back. And to add, with a smile on their lips: “The massive police presence really reassures us.” “The context is different, it will not happen again“, confirms Magalie, who came from Bourges with her husband and two children.
Guillaume, he hesitated before taking his 7-year-old son to the stands of the Stade de France: “The images were shocking. Of course, I was apprehensive before coming. But we came because we said to ourselves that they wanted to rectify the situation. And that the slightest deviation would be sanctioned.“Sign that the prefecture wanted to make this evening a success: the Paris police chief, Didier Lallement, spent a few minutes at a stand of the prefecture, two hours before the start of the meeting.
A year and a half from the Rugby World Cup and two years from the Olympic and Paralympic Games to be held in France, the objective was also to reassure foreign supporters, who will be brought to France for these planetary events. . Since the Champions League final, several voices have been heard in England, on the side of Liverpool supporters, to denounce the management of the event by France.
On Friday, 1,437 Danish supporters were present in the visitors’ stand. With the events of the C1 final in the background, but without focusing too much on it. “We saw all the pictures but it didn’t really scare us. We find ourselves in the middle of all the French supporters but the atmosphere is calm earlier. We’ve been to much warmer places“, assures Ronga, a Danish member of the fanfare band.
Long queues of spectators at the gates of the Stade de France. The supporters came early for the match, as advised by the prefecture. #FRADAN #FranceDenmark pic.twitter.com/sPmCvhvVom
— Denis Menetrier (@DMenetrier) June 3, 2022
For the Danes, the evening was beautiful until the end, with the reversal of the situation and the victory of their selection thanks to two goals from Andreas Cornelius. Despite the defeat, the Stade de France experienced a great atmosphere, for the first time sold out since November 14, 2019 and a match against Moldova. In the meantime, the Covid appeared and the Blues had only played in the Dionysian lair with gauges. Unfortunately for the 75,833 supporters present on Friday, the match ended with the Blues’ first loss since November 2020 and a defeat against Finland. The only disappointment of the evening.