Police in Paris made 98 arrests after France's 2-0 defeat by Spain in the 2018 World Cup semi-final on Tuesday, as celebrations and disorder spilled across the city. The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office said 21 of those taken into custody were minors.
The match turned on Mikel Oyarzabal’s first-half penalty, with Pedro Porro adding Spain’s second goal after the break. Spain will now face either England or Argentina in Sunday’s final at Metlife Stadium in New York, while France’s hopes of a third straight final ended in the same night that sent police into action on the streets.
The numbers give a clearer sense of what Paris was dealing with. In May, 780 arrests followed Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League triumph, and police had already prepared for a heavy night by deploying 5,000 staff, backed by 2,000 police officers and gendarmerie and 2,000 firefighters. Limits on drinking alcohol in the streets and the transportation of fireworks were also in place, because the semi-final fell on Bastille Day and brought a holiday crowd, a major match and a large security operation into the same evening.
What followed still got away from that planning. The offences included mortar fireworks fired at emergency services, fires involving 12 trash containers on Raymond Queneau street, and an attack on A Hypercacher supermarket that left a window broken. Firefighters were targeted when they arrived at the scene, though they were not hit. Most of the minors detained were arrested for aggravated theft and possession of incendiary materials, but the public account did not say how many of the 98 people will face prosecution or on what charges.
That is the part Paris has yet to answer. The arrests show the city can flood the streets with officers and firefighters and still be forced to react after the damage has already started, especially on a night when Bastille Day and a World Cup semi-final collided. For Spain, the result sends it on to New York. For Paris, the unresolved question is how far the custody cases will go once the night’s disorder is turned into formal charges.
