Stewards had to intervene in the Nations League match between France and Israel on Thursday to prevent fans from both countries from clashing in the stands, an AFP reporter noted. Videos filmed by spectators and posted on social media site X showed fans, some carrying Israeli flags, running through rows of seats at the Stade de France while other fans whistled and booed. Stewards in orange bibs moved between the two groups, separating them.
Paris police told AFP they could not comment until they received more information.
The match was played under heavy security after fans of Tel Aviv club Maccabi were attacked in Amsterdam last week after a Europa League match against Ajax.
| Fights broke out on the north corner of the Stade de France during the start of the match between France and Israel.
About fifty people took part in it.
Stewards intervened to try to restore calm
Security is ready to intervene.
🗞️ @RMCsport pic.twitter.com/URLz9bEt2B
— Football Xtra™ (@FootballXtra0) November 14, 2024
Violence erupted in Amsterdam after Maccabi fans set fire to a Palestinian flag and vandalized a taxi the night before, authorities said.
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said the incidents represented a “toxic cocktail of anti-Semitism and hooliganism.”
About 4,000 police officers patrolled outside and inside the Paris stadium.
Attendance was expected to be only 13,000 in the 80,000-capacity stadium.
The incidents in the Netherlands came amid anti-Israel sentiment and reported a rise in anti-Semitic acts around the world as Israel wages wars against Iran-backed Islamist militants in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
France advanced to the Nations League quarter-finals after a dismal 0-0 draw with Israel in a match marred by tight security measures in and around the sparsely populated Stade de France.
The hosts reached the last eight after group winners Italy beat Belgium 1-0.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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