1,000 French police to secure Israel-Mali Olympics soccer game

Around 1,000 French police officers will be on duty Wednesday evening to protect Israel’s soccer match against Mali at the Paris Olympics where protests are also expected, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin says.

The game involving the Israeli team at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, as well as the Ukraine-Iraq match in the southeastern city of Lyon, has been identified by French security forces as high risk.

“All the competitions have a security plan, but it’s true that these two matches, and particularly the match at the Parc des Princes, will have security, an anti-terror perimeter,” Darmanin told BFM television and RMC radio.

“Tonight at the Parc des Princes there will be a thousand police officers who will ensure that we are there for the sport,” he added.

President Isaac Herzog will attend the match.

All Israeli athletes at the Paris Games, which start officially on Friday, will have round-the-clock personal security provided by elite French police, both inside the Olympic Village and every time they leave the compound in northern Paris.

A French police source tells AFP that security forces were “expecting actions and disturbances around the stadium” and said it was possible that “people shout insults from the stands” or that there is “whistling and flags shown during the anthems, for example.”