CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS Maccabi Tel Aviv fans have never been attacked like in Amsterdam. Police confiscated the football

Equal everywhere. This is how Le Parisien headlined what happened on Thursday evening at the Stade de France during the France vs. Israel football match in the Nations League groups. Announced as a match with a high security risk after the events of November 7-8 in Amsterdam, when several Israeli fans were chased and injured on the streets of the Dutch city by citizens of Arab origin after the Ajax vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv match, Thursday evening's match in Paris "enjoyed" the special attention of the French Police and the authorities in the city of lights. The increased presence of law enforcement in the Stade de France arena, around it, in the immediate vicinity and on public transport passing by the stadium, took place amid accusations previously made against the Dutch police who did not intervene at all to help the victims of the attacks carried out in Amsterdam on November 7-8. The mobilization of the French Police for the France vs. Israel match was exemplary, even if at the time of the match other areas with a high crime risk in Paris remained uncovered, as was the case, for example, at the Eiffel Tower, where not a single policeman was in sight.

• Peace in Paris, ensured by the increased presence of law enforcement

The high Vigipirate alert, which we had been on since Wednesday, when we arrived in the French capital, was maintained until Friday, when the last Israeli supporters left Paris.

The numbers say everything about the way the French authorities prepared for this match, transforming the Stade de France into a real fortress, as France 2 headlined on the morning of the match. 4,000 police and gendarmes who ensured public order around the Stade de France arena, but also inside it, 1,600 security agents and the special RAID teams that ensured the protection of the Israeli national team were mobilized since Wednesday by the French Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, and the Prefect of Paris, Laurent Nunez. Although there were voices that demanded that the match between France and Israel be played in another country, as Belgium did, which gave up organizing the match of September 6, which was ultimately played in Debrecen, Hungary, the French authorities opposed because they considered that a relocation of this match would represent a sign of weakness that would be considered by the aggressors as a victory.

The only demonstration that was relocated by the prefect of Paris was a protest against the France vs. Israel match, a pro-Palestinian protest, which was supposed to take place in front of the city hall in Saint Denis. Prefect Laurent Nunez decided that the protest would take place at the end of tram line 12, in the Place du Front Popular, near Aubervilliers. The protest had the motto "We are not playing with genocide" and was initiated by the far-left party La France Inssoumise (Unsubmissive France), led by Jean-Luc Melenchon.

According to the daily La Provence, only a few dozen people participated in the protest, most of them of Arab origin, although several hundred people were present at two other pro-Palestinian protests on Wednesday evening, according to the cited source.

• Minor incidents in the stands

The match in Paris had the smallest audience at the Stade de France since the inauguration of this arena, which, according to the French press, made some officials present at the stadium say that they felt like in Monaco, where more officials than fans attend the local team's matches in the stands of the AS Monaco stadium.

However, French newspapers recorded minor incidents in the stands between the supporters of the two teams: the whistling of the national anthems, the display of two Palestinian flags that were quickly removed by the security forces present in the stands, verbal altercations between Israeli and French fans, after the latter challenged those who came from Tel Aviv to come and free the hostages taken by the Hamas terrorist group on October 7, 2023, anti-Hamas chants by Israeli fans. But that's it. No fighting in the stands or outside the Stade de France, which shows that the French security forces have successfully passed a difficult test.

Despite this test, at the end of the match, according to the Hexagon press, the coach of the Israeli national team, Ran Ben Shimon, thanked only Nicholas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande, who were present at the Stade de France, deliberately omitting the mention of President Emmanuel Macron, who was also present at the match. The French press states that the omission occurred in the context in which Macron has recently insisted on the cessation of hostilities in Gaza and stated that the Tel Aviv authorities must not forget that Israel was established by a UN decision.

It seems that Shimon has not taken into account the fact that the same Macron was the one who spoke in favor of playing the match on Thursday and called for an increase in the number of law enforcement officers and security measures in order not to give satisfaction to those who were planning new violence against Israeli fans.

A calm match, played under the close supervision of the law enforcement officers, the French national team with too few game ideas, an admirable Israeli goalkeeper and a fair 0-0 celebrated by those in Israel as a real victory, is all that remains after a match initially announced as one with a high security risk.