FFor the Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Bayern Munich this Sunday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League, on ZDF, Sky and DAZN), several thousand security guards will be on duty in the French capital . Around 3,000 police officers and gendarmes are being mobilized around the Prinzenpark and the Champs-Élysée, so that “things go as smoothly as possible,” as France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Saturday during a visit to the Paris police prefecture.
The priority is to ensure that people wear corona protective masks. The emergency services should also prevent violations of public order, said Darmanin. In order to create more space for pedestrians, the Champs-Élysée will be closed to traffic on Sunday. This should help people keep their distance. At what time exactly the road will be closed to vehicles was not initially announced. In this area, a mask requirement then applies, said the Paris police chief Didier Lallement. There are also free protective masks distributed in case someone forgets his, said Lallement.
The mayor of the chic 8th arrondissement concerned, Jeanne d’Hauteserre, called on football fans to see their senses in advance. It is difficult to justify if many tourists are currently not allowed to come to Paris, but then PSG supporters celebrated without a mask, said d’Hauteserre the television channel BFMTV. She hopes that there will be no “hideous” pictures from Paris on Sunday and that the situation from Tuesday will not be repeated.
On the day after PSG’s semi-final victory against Bundesliga club RB Leipzig on the famous Parisian boulevard, there were clashes with the police because fans without protective masks and safety distance had celebrated the victory of coach Thomas Tuchel’s team. There were several arrests. In Paris itself there will be no fan zones for the finale, the city announced.
A large fan mile for the final is therefore impossible in the French capital due to the Corona crisis – Paris Saint-Germain is inviting selected visitors to the Prinzenpark Stadium in the west of the city on Sunday to watch the final together. Among the invited guests are former players of the club, VIPs, supporters of the club as well as children from socially disadvantaged families and the PSG youth program Junior Club, said a club spokesman. A total of around 5,000 people should be in the stadium, which is the current upper limit for sporting events in France.
In a video, Tuchel, Thiago Silva and Ángel Di María called on fans to adhere to the Corona security requirements, to keep their distance and to wear a protective mask. Sunday is a big festival for PSG fans, said Tuchel in the video published on Twitter. “With the mask we protect each other,” emphasized Di María. The fans should keep the distance rules under all circumstances, said coach Tuchel.
After criticism, the police in Marseille have meanwhile lifted a ban on openly shown support for Paris Saint-Germain in parts of the city before the final. The corresponding decree, which banned the presence of PSG supporters or “people who present themselves as such” in the Old Port and the surrounding districts on Sunday from 3:00 p.m., was solely to protect the Parisian fans, said the police prefecture of the southern French Metropolis on Friday.
It was not about restricting people’s freedom of movement. Because of the “lack of understanding” for the decree, it was decided to repeal it, according to the police prefecture. Many bars in the old harbor broadcast the finale. The decree also banned chants, shirts and other fan articles from the French capital city club. The PSG fans are now urged not to be “boastful” in public and, if necessary, to celebrate a team victory “modestly”, according to the statement from the police prefecture.
Parisians are not particularly welcome in the port city, home of Olympique Marseille. The rivalry between the two clubs is known nationwide. There are regular clashes in games between the two top clubs in French Ligue 1. The decision for the ban was preceded by incidents on Tuesday, said the responsible prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône police, Emmanuel Barbe, on the radio station France Inter before the decree was withdrawn. For a PSG supporter who drove through the city center, it almost “turned out badly”, said Barbe. There have been other incidents in which PSG fans were threatened.
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