Minutes after the end of the match that placed France in the World Cup final and eliminated Morocco, tensions were already showing in the French city of Nice, on Wednesday night (14).
There, in Masséna Square, around 11 pm (7 pm in Brasilia) French and Moroccan fans faced each other and fired mortars at each other. Hooded men taunted the Moroccans by shouting: “Arabs, out” and “We are at home”. The information is from the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Le Monde reported that police evacuated Bellecour square, in central Lyon, with tear gas, following violence by a group of hooded individuals. Fans responded with mortars.
Around 10,000 police are deployed across the country, of which 5,000 are stationed in the Ile-de-France region, close to Paris, and around 2,200 in the capital, double the number of security personnel deployed in previous World Cup matches. World, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France 2 TV.
That’s because, on Saturday, when Morocco overcame Portugal and France beat England, fans of the two winning countries clashed with police on the Champs-Élysées avenue, in Paris.
In Paris, there were no reports of serious incidents until late Wednesday night. Around 23:00, hundreds of Parisians gathered in the Republic square at the exit of the bars to celebrate the classification of the Bleus (blue, in French) to the final. The atmosphere was good-natured, according to Le Monde, despite the mortars fired in the middle of cars and buses, which harassed drivers and passers-by.
At the final whistle, the French also ran to the Champs-Élysées avenue, to the sound of the Marseillaise and horns. During the game, bars and restaurants with big screens filled the adjacent streets. The latecomers followed the match on the sidewalks, through the windows, despite the bitter cold of 0º in the French capital.
Present at the game in Qatar, President Emmanuel Macron congratulated the French team and praised the Moroccan team. “I think our compatriots need simple and pure joys, sport offers that, football in particular. So I’m much better now than I was an hour and a half ago,” he said. “You never win a game early and the Moroccans played tremendously well.”
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