No Euro 2016 victory parade if France beat Portugal in final, security chiefs warn

Not that they have beat Portugal yet and no victory is a foregone conclusion, is it? However. From the Express. and the French edition of The Local

THERE will be no victory parade for France if they beat Portugal in the tonight’s final of Euro 2016 in the wake of November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, security officials have said. Security has been beefed up ahead of tonight’s final, with more than 5,000 French police officers patrolling the area around the Stade de France, as well as the Fan Zone near the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elyees. Around 3,400 police will swamp Paris’ Champs Elysees avenue on Sunday night after host nation France play Portugal in the final of football’s European Championship, the city’s police chief said.

“It is just not possible, we cannot allow big crowds to circulate freely on Monday,” Cadot told a press briefing. Security barriers are already being erected on the renowned avenue for the annual Bastille Day parade on Thursday, which would make the presence of several hundred thousand people for a players’ victory parade impractical, the police chief said.

The Stade de France was also targeted by a suicide bomber as the French national team played a friendly against Germany.

Tonight’s final kicks off at 9pm local time (8pm GMT) with hundreds of thousands of fans expected to watch the game on big screen around Paris as well as in bars and pubs. 

Mathias Vicherat, the Paris mayor’s chief of staff, said: “We have extremely favourable ratio of one officer for fewer than 50 spectators. So it is an extremely high standard.”

However, with France still on high terror alert, officials say there will be no victory parade in the event of a French win tonight.

More than a million people celebrated in the Champs Elyees following France’s World Cup victory in 1998, where the final was also held in Paris.