According to the newspaper L'Équipe, the Paris police prefect, Didier Lallement, issued an order prohibiting supporters from selections competing in the semifinals of the FIFA Arab Cup 2021 (Tunisia, Egypt, Qatar, Algeria, a competition that serves rehearsal at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar) to demonstrate on and around the Champs-Élysées, “this Wednesday December 15 from 4 pm to Thursday December 16 at 1 am”.
A very large security perimeter, including the Place de la Porte Maillot, the Avenue des Ternes, the Place de la Concorde and the Avenue Victor-Hugo, has been defined and a large police force deployed to enforce this decree.
In writing this decree, the authorities specify that “in the mentioned perimeter (...), the presence of people claiming the quality of supporting football teams from Algeria, Egypt, Qatar and Tunisia or behaving as such is prohibited ”.
A new decree planned for the final?
To justify his decision, Didier Lallement refers to "the incidents which occurred on the avenue des Champs-Élysées on Saturday, December 11, 2021, during the match between the teams of Morocco and Algeria (...), which 200 supporters Algerian footballers gathered on the heights of the Champs-Élysées avenue, near Friedland access, Charles de Gaulle Étoile station, that they invaded the traffic lanes by displaying Algerian flags and that 'they sent projectiles, smoke bombs and mortars in the direction of the police ”.
The tension gradually mounts on the #ChampsElysees.
Tear gas is used by the police.
Several hundred Algerian supporters are on the Champs after the victory against Morocco.
# FIFAArabCup2021 #MARALG #MarocAlgerie pic.twitter.com/EdaGCGOf0M
- Remy Buisine (@RemyBuisine) December 11, 2021
The Prefect of Police goes back even further in the past and makes another reference: “Considering that Algerian football supporters gathered in the same sector on July 14, 2019 (after the 2-1 victory in the semi-finals of CAN against Nigeria) and on this occasion numerous excesses, acts of degradation and looting, as well as violence against the police had been committed, leading to the arrest of 123 individuals, 116 of whom were placed in custody. vue, among which 20 were brought before a magistrate with two terms of imprisonment pronounced and nine summons for judgment issued "
The team specifies that it is "very likely that a new order of the same type will be taken for the evening of December 18", on the occasion of the final of the Arab Cup.
Tunisia is already certain to play it since it qualified (1-0) against Egypt in the semi-final.
