Stewards had to intervene at the Nations League match between France and Israel on Thursday to stop fans of both nations from clashing in the stands, an AFP reporter saw. Videos taken by spectators and posted on the X social media network show fans, some with Israeli flags, running along the rows of seats at the Stade de France while other fans whistled and booed. Stewards wearing orange bibs moved between the two groups to separate them.
Paris police told AFP it could not comment until it had received more information.
The match took place under heavy security after fans from the Maccabi Tel Aviv club were attacked in Amsterdam last week following a Europa League match against Ajax.
| Fights broke out in the north bend of the Stade de France during the start of the match between France & Israel
About fifty people were involved
Stewards intervened to try to restore calm
The CRS are ready to intervene.
?️ @RMCsport pic.twitter.com/URLz9bEt2B
— Football Xtra™ (@FootballXtra0) November 14, 2024
The violence in Amsterdam flared after Maccabi fans set fire to a Palestinian flag the night before and vandalised a taxi, authorities said.
Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema said the incidents were a “poisonous cocktail of anti-Semitism and hooliganism”.
Around 4,000 police were on patrol outside and inside the stadium in Paris.
The attendance was expected to be as low as 13,000 in a stadium with an 80,000 capacity.
The incidents in the Netherlands took place with anti-Israeli sentiment and reported anti-Semitic acts across the world soaring as Israel wages wars against Iran-backed Islamist militants in Lebanon and Gaza.
France reached the Nations League quarter-finals on after a dull 0-0 draw with Israel in a match overshadowed by tight security in and around the sparsely-filled Stade de France.
The hosts made the last-eight after group winners Italy defeated Belgium 1-0.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
