France: Residence permits threatened after the excesses of the 2025 AFCON

Yes to the party, no to the excesses. This is the essence of the message sent by the Place Beauvau to all the prefectures of France. As Morocco faces Cameroon this Friday evening and Algeria will play on Saturday, the French authorities fear a repeat of the scenes observed on January 6, when the Fennecs qualified.

In this document revealed by BFMTV, Laurent Nunez points the finger at these "spontaneous gatherings" which, although testifying to a "collective enthusiasm", have sometimes gone too far. The objective is clear: "to avoid any recurrence of disturbances to public order".

Champs-Élysées banned and crackdown on mortars

In Paris, the Police Prefecture has taken the lead. The Champs-Élysées are declared a prohibited zone for supporters. From this Friday at 3 p.m., any gathering of people claiming to be supporters of one of the teams in the running is prohibited within a strict perimeter.

Elsewhere in the country, the prefects are invited to mobilize all the powers of administrative police. In the sights of the law enforcement agencies: the misuse of pyrotechnic means and fireworks, which have become the usual weapons of urban violence.

But the most sensitive point of this directive directly concerns foreign nationals. The Minister of the Interior has requested a "firm application" of administrative sanctions.

In plain terms, any foreigner arrested for disturbing public order will be exposed not only to judicial proceedings, but also to removal measures or the withdrawal of his residence permit. A directive of severity that comes in a tense climate, marked by incidents in Lyon where hate speech and anti-Semitism were reported to the justice system after Algeria’s round of 16.