In France and around Europe, football proceeds a week after Paris attacks but extra vigilance is needed

Ian Hawkey looks ahead to the return of Ligue 1 this weekend in the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks.

LFP president Frederic Thiriez has taken the measure of refusing away fans on the basis of security. Franck Fife / AFP

Ian Hawkey

The champions of France will take the field on Saturday with a small reminder on their chests of where they come from.

Paris Saint-Germain’s logo emphasises the club’s locale strongly, with the Eiffel Tower its centre-piece.

But for their match at Lorient, it will have a special slogan embroidered beneath it: “Je Suis Paris,” ‘I am Paris,” a mark of solidarity with the victims of the terrorist attacks on the city eight days ago.

Most of the dedicated followers of PSG will not be present to support their team, however, because, as with all fixtures in Ligue 1 this weekend, starting with Friday’s Nice against Lyon match, away supporters have been told they will not be admitted to stadiums.

It is one of the extra precautions being taken by the French government, which declared a state of emergency following the deaths of over 130 people in the capital last Friday, as they recognise that the country’s most popular sport is now deemed a target for terrorism.

[Weekend preview: Ligue 1 returns to action one week on from Paris attacks + kick-off times (UAE)]

Eight days ago, there was an attempt to bring a bomb into the Stade de France, where France were playing Germany at the time of the various, co-ordinated atrocities across Paris and, though the bomber could not enter the stadium, three lives were lost in the vicinity of the arena.

Last Tuesday, two international friendlies, Germany’s match against Holland in Hannover, and Belgium’s at home to Spain, were called off because of perceived security threats.

In France, some of the same determination to maintain society’s usual routines that meant the national team, Les Bleus, went ahead with their fixture against England in London five days after the attacks, informs the attitude to this weekend: the programme of games goes ahead.

But there is a need for extra vigilance, too, and, an admission that big events suddenly do feel more vulnerable, and at risk.

The advice to away supporters not to follow their teams up and down the country, explained Frederic Thiriez, the president of the LFP, the league’s governing body was “because the Ministry of the Interior does not, at the moment, have sufficient resources to accompany groups of visiting fans and see to their general extra security duties.”

In less than nine months’ time, France will need to call enough manpower to do that, and more. They will be hosting the largest European championship ever staged.

This weekend, the national anthem, La Marseillaise, will be heard across sports, across the country, with those attending matches invited to sing it ahead of kick-off everywhere.

[Gallery: Photos from an emotional night at Wembley as England host France days after Paris attacks]

That way of remembering the victims of a shocking episode of violence will be echoed in the English Premier League, where the weekend’s fixtures are also to be preceded by the French national anthem.

In those countries where internationals were cancelled in midweek, Germany and Belgium, league games will go ahead amid tightened security. Fans attending Jupiler league games, in Belgium, will not be allowed to bring bags into stadiums, while Bundesliga followers have been advised that security checks will mean they should arrive at matches earlier than usual.

The German internationals who spent most of last Friday night at the Stade de France rather than return to their hotel, and then had their game against the Netherlands called off after police learnt of a possible attempt to plant an explosive device in the Hannover stadium have the sympathy of some club executives.

“I would understand if they felt reluctant to play,” said Klaus Allofs, Wolfsburg’s sporting director, “though I don’t anticipate any withdrawals.”

In Madrid, where the highest-profile Primera Liga fixture of the calendar takes place, with Real Madrid hosting Barcelona, the police detail has been doubled as a result of events in Paris.

One thousand one hundred officers will man the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, which will be encircled by four perimeter rings. Real Madrid have also deployed 1,400 security guards for the game.

PLAYER TO WATCH

‘I am just a normal teenager,’ insists Gianluigi Donnarumma, the young goalkeeper who has become, effectively, AC Milan’s first-choice goalkeeper over the last month. Tonight, he prepares to take on Juventus, still more three months shy of his 17th birthday.

Record-breaker

Donnarumma was called up for his Serie A debut on October 25, for Milan’s home match against Sassuolo. He hardly sneaked in unnoticed. At 1.96m, he is exceptionally tall for a 16-year-old but still has the face of a boy. And he has set a modern landmark. No younger keeper has played in Serie A. None of the famously precocious modern greats among glovemen – not Iker Casillas, nor Manuel Neuer, nor Petr Cech, nor Gigi Buffon – were as young as Donnarumma when they made their elite club bow.

Stiff competition

Milan coach Sinisa Mihajlovic picked the prodigy not because of a fitness emergency, but because he genuinely thought Donnarumma had earned his chance. But it was still a surprising promotion. Diego Lopez, the club’s Spain international, had suffered a dip in form. But Christian Abbiati, the veteran Italy international, is still around at Milan to provide back-up, at the age of 38.

Family tradition

Donnarumma, ‘Gigio’ to his friends, grew up supporting Milan, and picking up technical tips from his older brother, Antonio. The senior Donnarumma, now 25, was in Milan’s youth system and considered a candidate to become their regular keeper in the future. He is employed in Serie A, with Genoa, although not as a regular first-teamer.

Gigio and Gigi

If Antonio was a role-model, the Italy national keeper and captain, Buffon, was an idol. “I really looked up to him all my life,” Donnarumma said. The possibility of 16-year-old Gigio directly up against 37-year-old Gigi, the Juventus captain, tonight depends on Buffon’s fitness, which has been in doubt. But their paths will cross, and there is every expectation that Donnarumma will one day be keeping goal for Italy, as Buffon has been doing for most of the 21st century.

CAN’T MISS GAME

Jorge Jesus has a passion for Lisbon derbies. His good luck, since taking over as manager of Sporting Clube de Portugal, is that they have come round with great frequency.

Tonight, Sporting meet Benfica in the Portuguese Cup, just a month after the team in green hoops beat their fierce rivals in red 3-0 away in the league and three short months after Sporting won the Portuguese Super Cup 1-0 against Benfica.

Victory today at Sporting’s Jose Alvalade Stadium would mark a special landmark. Not since the 1953/54 season have Sporting won three derbies on the trot.

For most of the last six years, they had scant hope of winning any at all. The reason? Jesus, who in the summer made a move considered treacherous by many benfiquistas.

He had been the unusually long-serving coach at Benfica from 2009 to 2015, a period of three league titles, two Europa League finals and plenty of domestic cup honours.

Above all Benfica ruled the local derby under Jesus. “Do you know how many times Sporting won against Benfica in the 14 times we played while I was at Benfica?” Jesus asked, provocatively, after the stunning Sporting win last month. “One,” he reported, accurately enough.

He had actually lost count.

Sporting, who are top of the league, beat Jesus’s Benfica just that once in 15 attempts – not 14 – when Jesus was their nemesis, not their guide.

He is entitled to take credit for Sporting’s turnaround, for galvanising a squad who combine players who have emerged from the club’s excellent academy with experienced travellers, such as like Bryan Ruiz.

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