The Champions League final is due to take place on Saturday, May 30th, pitting Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) against English Arsenal. The authorities are already preparing for a wave of fan violence that will be difficult to contain, both in Paris and in other major cities. Such outbreaks are no longer isolated incidents but occur with almost systematic regularity. Does this mean that the authorities are incapable of anticipating and ensuring security, or that they have chosen to give up in advance?
Following Paris Saint-Germain’s qualification for the UEFA Champions League final, during the night of Wednesday, May 7, several incidents of violence and vandalism broke out in Paris and the larger Paris region, particularly around the Champs-Élysées and the Parc des Princes. According to the ministry of the interior, 127 people were arrested, including 107 in Paris. The authorities also reported 11 people injured, including a man seriously wounded by a firework mortar, as well as 23 police officers with minor injuries.
The incidents took various forms: fireworks aimed at the police, clashes with the CRS riot police, street furniture set alight, shop windows smashed, and shops looted in the Champs-Élysées area. Several makeshift barricades were erected in the capital, forcing security forces to intervene on a massive scale to disperse the violent groups.
But this was merely a dress rehearsal. Far more serious violence is feared for the night of May 30th. Yet the match will not take place in France, but in Budapest. Nevertheless, significant repercussions are anticipated. Interior Minister Lauren Nuñez promises an “exceptional” security operation. A police source told Valeurs Actuelles that they fear an “insurrectionary” atmosphere. The timing of the match will be conducive to an escalation of the unrest, as the violence could begin much earlier and continue throughout the night. The mild weather will also play a role: after a week of a heatwave, the return of slightly cooler temperatures will unleash people’s energies. “We are expecting urban violence on an unprecedented scale,” adds the source.
Back in 2025, then-Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau condemned “atrocities” committed by “barbarians” in a context of “insurrection.” Three years earlier, in 2022, the final between Real Madrid and Liverpool at the Stade de France sparked scenes of chaos around the stadium, which the then-minister, Gérald Darmanin, attributed—with blatant bad faith—to “English supporters.” Since then, the expression “it’s Liverpool’s fault”, or “it’s the English’ fault”, has almost become proverbial for denouncing a situation of denial of reality.
It cannot therefore be said that the government has not been warned. But the scale of the anticipated unrest reveals a worrying deterioration in the social fabric and public order in France—now accepted as an inevitable fact. Everything suggests that the police are being mobilised—in large numbers, with 22,000 officers expected on the ground on the evening of May 30th—to manage the chaos, without overreacting, in order to avoid any ‘blunders’ or the climate of violence escalating irrevocably and turning against the police. The sports press is focusing on the authorities’ desire to contain any outbreaks rather than systematically disperse suspicious gatherings. This reflects a classic approach to policing in France today: it is sometimes necessary to accept a certain level of localised disorder to prevent a more serious escalation. The question is whether the acceptance of ‘localised disorder’ still remains within reasonable limits. There are serious grounds for doubting this.
