France kick off their World Cup campaign today against Senegal – and it seems almost inevitable that, win or lose, there will be ugly scenes on the streets of France during the tournament.
Shops were looted, cars burned and police officers attacked by mobs
In some cities, a curfew have been imposed. Clermont and Toulouse have ordered all unaccompanied under 16s to stay indoors between the hours of 10pm and 5am. The curfew applies only to certain matches, those judged to be ‘high-risk’; these include all France matches and some involving Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.
Jean-Luc Moudenc, the centre-right mayor of Toulouse, justified the curfew by pointing to the “incidents during the Champions League final”. That was a reference to the widespread rioting across France after Paris Saint-Germain beat Arsenal last month to retain their European crown. Shops were looted, cars burned and police officers attacked by mobs of young men. Some were PSG fans; but many took advantage of the football to come to the city centre and pillage. The violence was a repetition of what unfolded in Paris twelve months earlier, when PSG beat Inter Milan to win their first Champions League title.
It was also similar to the mayhem that erupted during the 2022 World Cup. Some Moroccans celebrated their team’s progress to the semi-finals by running amok in French cities, vandalising trams and attacking police.
