At the 2014 World Cup, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and Fifa president Sepp Blatter were booed at the opening game as Brazilians didn’t welcome the staging of the World Cup in the country. The build-up to the tournament was marred with protests across Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo against the high cost of building the stadiums, corruption and police brutality, reported The Guardian.
The media’s repeated prophecies of doom over the organisation of the tournament, however, never materialised. Brazil’s own goal in the 11th minute against Croatia in the opener set in motion a goal-filled roller coaster ride, blurred by emotions and high-quality football, delivering a superb tournament.
Fast forward two years and the organisation of Euro 2016 in France has been scrutinised closely: security concerns exacerbated by social unrest have marred the build-up, threatening to disrupt the month-long football festival and the smooth organisation of the tournament. The upheaval is not often associated with major sport events in the West, whose media often portray preparations in non-Western host countries condescendingly, with plenty of hoity-toity reporting.
Labour law
France’s sluggish economy requires a radical reform in its labour law, according to the government. The labour law maintains the 35-hour work week, but allows for flexible working hours, to be negotiated at an individual level between the employer and employee. Firms will also be given greater freedom to reduce pay and conditions to lay off workers have been eased. The current socialist government wanted to tackle the 10.5% unemployment rate in a bid to bolster its campaign for the presidential elections in 2017.The law has hit a nerve with the French. Smoke has been swirling through the sky for weeks, with major nationwide industrial action and protest marches affecting public services severely. At times, protests have turned violent, as deeply unpopular President Francois Hollande and French unions are in a standoff. The mass demonstrations further stretch the resources of the French police.
During Euro 2016, private security firms will aid the police in their tasks. For once, the gargantuan security measures are justified. Hollande wants the tournament to be one big party, but security will be his overarching concern, along with the Local Organising Committee and Uefa.State of emergency
France is still in a state of emergency following last November’s coordinated assaults that killed 130 people across the capital. Last Monday, Ukraine’s state security service arrested a French citizen on the border with Poland with an arsenal of weapons and explosives in his possession. He was allegedly plotting a string of terror attacks before and during Euro 2016.
A record 90,000 security staff will be deployed for the tournament, including 42,000 police officers, 30,000 gendarmes and 10,000 soldiers in combat fatigues, who are currently patrolling across France in the anti-terrorism protection plan “Operation Sentinelle”.The terror threat is real, according to multiple international security services, but the French police are stretched with deployments to control the protests and the refugee camp in Calais, as well as the need to execute their expansive powers granted by the state of emergency, allowing for house arrests outside the normal legal process and for conduct searches without a warrant.
Embarrassing security arrangements
At the French Cup final between Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille last month, which was the last match hosted at the Stade de France before Euro 2016, the security operation was impressive, but not sufficient. In many ways the final had been predestined to be a rambunctious, but tense night: Swedish superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic was to play his last match for PSG against their arch-rivals from the south. The French Classico traditionally cuts across social divisions in France.A perimeter was imposed around the stadium, where 1,000 police and security personnel subjected fans to thorough checks and searches. Bomb squads with dogs inspected the interior of the stadium and parking lots for any suspicious packages. Several Marseille supporters got hot-headed and interventions of riot police were required to prevent clashes with opposing fans. Inside the perimeter, fans were divided into four zones and not allowed to move freely, a measure that won’t apply for Euro 2016.
Disgruntled by Zlatan’s one-man show and PSG’s imperious win, Marseille fans tried to tear down a security fence that had been erected to prevent them from storming the pitch. Riot police then cordoned of the pitch as PSG were celebrating their win with their fans at the other end of the stadium. Marseille fans also vented their frustration by vandalising seats and lighting fires in the stands.The security operation turned into a bit of an embarrassment: Marseille fans had smuggled banned objects into the Stade de France in abundance. These included firecrackers, flares and glass bottles. “It was a Classico,” said the police chief of the Division Nationale de Lutte contre le Hooliganisme, Antoine Boutonnet. “There were provocations that were totally unacceptable and condemnable by the Marseille fans in the stands at the end of the game. It is not acceptable to set seats on fire or start fires in confined spaces.” However, Boutonnet added, “You can’t confuse this game with Euro 2016. It’s not the same population of fans. They have nothing to do with each other.”
This Friday, a very partisan 80,000 crowd will flock to the Stade de France – cheek-kissing politicians, self-righteous football officials, m’as-tu-vu VIPs, prawn and sandwich yuppies, football-loving middle-class families and football-obsessed workers. In short, the whole spectrum of society, wrapped up in tricolour flags and scarfs and wielding blue paraphernalia, will gather under the Stade de France’s 13,000-ton elliptical roof, which supposedly symbolises the universality of sports in France. On the night, that symbolism will be prevalent, but the fear is that destructive outsiders want to cripple it.