Champions League final: Paris will see an unprecedented police deployment
French authorities have aimed to dispel the unenviable memory of the 2022 UEFA Champions League final, held at the Stade de France, a major stadium in the northern Paris suburb of Saint-Denis. That day, the match between Real Madrid and Liverpool turned into a security fiasco, with hundreds of Spanish and British fans being attacked, robbed and assaulted, all while the police officers present appeared overwhelmed by the events.
Therefore, the deployment of 5,400 police officers and gendarmes throughout Paris, for the period around the match between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and Inter Milan, held in Munich and scheduled for Saturday, May 31, is set to be as much about security as it is about political considerations – as well as about France's international image. The government, and, above all, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, face a three-fold challenge.
For weeks now, several meetings have been held at the Paris Police Prefecture, the nerve center of security for a sporting event that has been deemed high-risk. To ensure that it goes ahead without a hitch, the authorities have called in large numbers of law enforcement personnel, including mobile gendarmes, riot police, intervention units and transit police. In addition, plainclothes officers have also been prepared for deployment, and they have received clear orders from Paris' Public Security Directorate. Plainclothes teams "will be primarily tasked with fighting crime, by detecting and suppressing pickpocketing, violent theft and other assaults that could target spectators and fans in public transport. The security operation will have to be particularly proactive and result in the systematic arrests of offenders."
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