The atmosphere today at the Parc des Princes is not what one would expect for a Champions League quarter-final day. While the terrorist threat has weighed on the site since Monday and additional mobile force units will be deployed this Wednesday to supervise the match between PSG and FC Barcelona, the stadium was the target of acts of vandalism during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
It was around 2:30 a.m. when the police intervened at 24, rue du Commandant-Guilbaud, in the 16th arrondissement, at the foot of the stadium entrance. They were dispatched to the site after an emergency call reported a dispute between stadium security agents and around twenty individuals sticking stickers on the doors of the site, we learned from ‘a source close to the matter.
The rest of the group fled
Arriving quickly on the scene, the police managed to arrest two of the individuals accused of “intentional damage by affixing stickers”. According to our information, they were found in possession of two bags containing numerous stickers on which these racist remarks were written: “Qatar bought Neymar to better sell us Islamism”. The rest of the group managed to escape on foot.
According to the first observations made by the police officers, the individuals had time to stick a total of around twenty stickers on the doors of the Parc des Princes as well as around the site. “At the end of the checks, the arrested individuals were released,” said a police source. At this stage, we do not yet know whether the site security manager wishes to file a complaint.
The Paris prosecutor’s office also adds that an investigation into “deliberate damage” has been opened and that “the two individuals arrested could soon be summoned again for questioning.”
The facts closely follow the launch of an awareness campaign against intolerance, “Let’s clear discrimination”, initiated less than two weeks ago by the Professional Football League (LFP), itself faced with controversies in this subject in recent years.
