Representative image.© X (Twitter)
A Nations League football match between France and Israel will go ahead as planned in Paris next week despite the clashes that erupted in Amsterdam following a game between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Ajax, the French interior minister said on Friday. The game at the Stade de France on Thursday has been identified as a potential flashpoint but Bruno Retailleau said France would not “back down”. “Some are calling for the France-Israel match to be relocated. I do not accept this,” Retailleau wrote on X.
“France is not backing down because that would amount to giving up in the face of threats of violence and anti-Semitism,” he added.
Retailleau said he had asked Paris police chief Laurent Nunez to take the necessary security measures for the match.
A lawmaker from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) party, Julien Odoul, on Thursday suggested moving the match to the island of Corsica.
Violence flared in Amsterdam after a Europa League match on Thursday between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Israeli, Dutch and European leaders on Friday condemned “anti-Semitic” clashes and Israel sent rescue planes for its citizens.
The mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema said the violence represented an “explosion” of anti-Semitism that has “not been seen in a long time”, describing “hit and run” attacks on Maccabi supporters by “hooligans on scooters”.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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