Double standards": Paris officials demand access to the Champs Elysées for Moroccan fans

Frédéric Hocquard, deputy mayor of Paris in charge of tourism and nightlife, expressed his surprise at this ban to the daily newspaper Le Parisien. The elected official recalls that the celebration on the Champs-Élysées is a tradition for supporters and points out that 45 players participating in this CAN edition are from Île-de-France, making it the largest contingent in the world. While acknowledging the security issues, he opposes the principle of a preventive ban and states that the supporters of Morocco and Senegal should be considered as inhabitants of the region like the others.

This position is shared by Stéphane Troussel, president of the Seine-Saint-Denis departmental council, who has contacted the police prefect via the social network X to request the lifting of the decree. The socialist elected official insists that the CAN is a major popular competition and that the security rules applied should be identical to those of other sporting events. He deplores what he considers to be an inequality of access to the avenue, which should, according to him, remain open to the entire population.

Despite the restrictions already in place during the previous rounds, thousands of Moroccan supporters defied the ban in the night from Wednesday to Thursday last week to celebrate Morocco’s qualification on the Parisian avenue. For the elected officials opposed to the measure, the maintenance of this decree is generating growing incomprehension within the Île-de-France community, while the epic of the Atlas Lions is generating historic expectations.