A substantial system in the face of security risk. A thousand police and soldiers will be deployed on Saturday around the Pierre-Mauroy stadium in Villeneuve-d’Ascq, in the suburbs of Lille in the north, to supervise the Coupe de France final between PSG and OL played in in the evening (9 p.m.). An important framework for a meeting classified at the highest level of the scale of the National Division for the Fight against Hooliganism.
Contacted by Le Parisien-Aujourd’hui in France, the Northern prefecture explains that in detail, these 1,000 people mobilized are made up of local police officers, mobile forces, as well as soldiers from the Sentinel force. This involves supporting the expected 30,400 supporters of the two teams, 15,200 on each side.
A prefectural decree taken on Thursday regulates the presence of Parisian and Lyon supporters. They cannot go to the side of the square of the enclosure dedicated to opposing supporters, the north for OL, the south for PSG. Furthermore, they must also remain in their part of the Pierre-Mauroy stadium and none of the 20,000 “neutral” people must display any distinctive sign of one of the clubs or behave like one of their supporters.
PSG supporters in one metro line, Lyon supporters in the other
The authorities’ idea is to separate as much as possible the flows of supporters of Kylian Mbappé’s team and those of Alexandre Lacazette’s team. Parisians are invited to take line 1 of the Lille metropolis, while Lyon residents are invited to take line 2. Those who travel in buses chartered by the supporters’ associations will be grouped together and then escorted from the motorway, the A1 for PSG supporters, the A26 for OL supporters.
The Northern prefecture also banned the consumption of alcohol and “all drinks” on public roads in the towns of Lille, Lezennes and Villeneuve-d’Ascq from Saturday noon and until 4 a.m. the next day. Furthermore, the possession and use of pyrotechnic devices is prohibited in several streets around the final venue. Law enforcement will also be able to inspect luggage and the inside of the trunks of vehicles traveling around the stadium.
Supporters of Losc, a resident club, who would like to display their colors are banned from the stadium, as well as from several adjacent streets of Pierre-Mauroy. Those from OM and Nancy, who face each other in the Gambardella Cup final at the end of the afternoon, must remain in their dedicated part of the stadium. Finally, a temporary no-fly zone has been set up to prevent the passage of possible drones in the area.
