Paris’s iconic Champs-Élysées will become a pedestrian-only zone during PSG’s Champions League final showdown against Bayern Munich on Sunday evening – while 3,000 police will be deployed in the French capital as authorities try to avoid a repeat of the rowdy scenes that greeted PSG’s semi-final victory on Tuesday.
The Champs-Élysées and surrounding streets in central Paris will be closed to traffic on Sunday evening at 9pm, when the match kicks off.
Face masks will be compulsory for people gathering there, with authorities planning to distribute more than 2,000 of them for free. Across Paris, 17 metro stations will be closed.
“Our priority is to guarantee people’s health and safety as well as maintaining public order,” France’s Interior Minister Gérard Darmanin said in a tweet on Saturday morning.
Police will be deployed to central Paris and around PSG’s stadium the Parc des Princes in the wealthy 16th arrondissement in the southwestern corner of Paris, Darmanin added in televised comments. The match will be played behind closed doors at the Estadio de la Luz in Lisbon, Portuguese side Benfica’s ground.
French authorities are keen to avoid a repeat of Tuesday night’s scenes in Paris, when police arrested 36 people, including three minors, after clashes – notably on the Champs-Élysées – following PSG’s semi-final win over RB Leipzig.
Thousands of PSG fans, often very young and for the most part not wearing masks in line with coronavirus health and safety protocols, paraded down the Champs-Élysées in cars, and on mopeds and scooters, in a cacophony of horn-blowing and chanting.
Arrests were made, police said, for various acts, including the throwing of projectiles, acts of violence against authorities, contempt and theft.
On Friday, the French health ministry reported 4,586 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, after the country reached a post-lockdown record the previous day. "All the indicators keep going up and the transmission of the virus is getting stronger among all ages groups affected, young adults in particular," the health ministry said in a statement.
It added that the virus was especially active in and around Paris and Marseille, France's two biggest cities.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)
