France offers display of unity and resilience
It is in those times when tragedy strikes, caused by terrorism’s sickened touch, that the sports we cherish feel most futile.
The outcome of a competition is the last thing on the collective mind when those who would shatter peace are successful, such as the grim days of November when the world was moved to #PrayForParis.
Yet when moving forward in spite of terror, not in fear of it, becomes the appropriate response, sports comes into its own.
That is when the games take on an importance greater than the sum of their parts, and that will be the case starting Friday, when a venue on the edge of Paris hosts the opening game of soccer’s European Championship.
It will be a moving occasion when Stade de France, in the suburb of Saint Denis, hosts France’s clash with Romania to begin the tournament, featuring 24 nations from around Europe.
For this is not a tenuous link. Soccer was forced to look terrorism squarely in the eye on that bloody November night that led to 130 deaths and caused hearts all over the world to weep for this city synonymous with love.
As the main carnage unfolded 6 miles away at Bataclan Theater in central Paris, three suicide bombers blew themselves up in the area surrounding Stade de France, where the national team was playing Germany in an international friendly.
At least one of the attackers attempted to enter the stadium. That man exploded his device just outside, killing himself and a nearby driver. A second bomb went off soon after near a stadium entrance, then a third at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant. Fiftythree people were wounded in the Saint Denis attacks. With 79,000 fans in attendance that night, the repercussions if one or more terrorists had successfully entered the arena and detonated a bomb are chilling to consider.
Soccer responded as the most global of games should. France’s squad did itself and its nation proud, waiting in the locker room to be with the quarantined German players as uncertainty reigned on the city’s streets, even when they had been told to leave for their safety.
The games carried on, with emotional tributes and dedications. France played rival England just days later, an extraordinary night when both sets of fans sang
La Marseillaise, France’s beautiful and iconic anthem.
“No one can forget what happened,” France coach Didier Deschamps has said. “We lived very emotional moments, all together. Now we must move forward. All safety measures are taken.”
France is still in an official state
of emergency, a protocol put into place in November and retained for this summer. Games and public “fan zones” in each host city will be guarded with intense security measures.
“This event must be as safe as possible, without impinging on the festival atmosphere that must prevail at the tournament,” Luc Presson, inspector general of the French national police, told The Guardian.
However, recent developments have done nothing to quell the nerves. A French man was arrested Monday in Ukraine with a cache of explosives that it was suspected he planned to use to launch attacks at the Euros.
The uncertainty will create an eerie backdrop to the French summer and a soccer tournament that is one of the shining lights of its sport. Europe’s tight proximity means that supporters travel well and the patriotism is often more recognizable than at World Cups.
France won the last major tournament it hosted, the 1998 World Cup, an event that served to heal ethnic tensions. It has a team capable of a similar result this time, and any kind of run will bring together a nation still hurting.
More than anything, the Euros will be a victory just by taking place, a symbol of peace and defiance and a refusal to be bowed. That is the world of sports’ social magic at its finest, medicine for the soul of a nation attacked, but not beaten, by terror.