Fears in Paris over 'high risk' France-Israel football match

France is preparing to host Israel's national football team in a match deemed "high risk" by the authorities after last week’s violence in Amsterdam.

Violence erupted in the Dutch capital on Thursday in the run-up to Maccabi Tel Aviv's five-goal defeat to Ajax.

According to Dutch locals and police, Maccabi fans had torn down Palestinian flags on private property, threatened locals and threw projectiles at passers by.

They were also filmed singing racist chants against Arabs, leading to a response by locals, including members of the Moroccan community, in which dozens of Maccabi fans were injured, including at least one fan who was forced into a canal.

Despite eyewitness accounts detailing a series of provocations by Maccabi fans, western media outlets and politicians have characterised the events as an antisemitic pogrom.

France has announced exceptional measures to ensure security at the upcoming match, with the mobilisation of a total of 4,000 police officers and gendarmes.

Such a deployment corresponds to an "extremely reinforced system" and is "very unusual" for an international match, the Paris prefect of police Laurent Nunez said on Sunday.

To prevent an invasion of the pitch, the first rows of the stands will be closed off. Mobile force units and plainclothes police officers will operate in the stands, while the Raid, the elite unit of the national police, will be responsible for the security of the Israeli team.

Palestinian flags will also be banned from the stadium.

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