The bombs that were let off outside the Stade De France, where France were playing a friendly match against Germany, were only a small part of the city wide terrorist attacks, but the French Football Federation have now cancelled their open training session today and there will be talks with the English FA about whether to cancel the scheduled game against England on Tuesday.
An FA Spokesman said last night: “It is a very serious and tragic matter,”
“If there is any update on the match on Tuesday we will announce in due course.
“We will liaise with the French Football Federation over the weekend. “The FA sends its deep condolences to the victims of this tragic event but to say anything else would be inappropriate.”
While stressing that no decision to cancel the game has been made yet, the FFF president Noel Le Great said in a statement: “The French Football Federation shares the emotion that shakes the nation following the tragic events of Friday in Paris and around the Stade de France.
“The FFF shares the grief of the bereaved families and relatives.”
I personally doubt that the England game will go ahead due to the state of emergency declared in France and also out of respect for the innocent people who died last night, and it is likely that Kieran Gibbs, Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny will be allowed to return to London early.
But there are also much bigger concerns for the FFF and UEFA about fans’ safety at next year’s Euro 2016 tournament, which is being held in France. Le Great told L’Equipe: “For the Euro, there was already a big worry. Today it’s obviously even stronger.”
But for the moment, the game should be cancelled, and the French given some time to mourn their dead and concentrate all their efforts on catching every single terrorist responsible for last night’s atrocities….