Paris Police Sealing Off Seine River Ahead of Olympics Opening Ceremony

People carry their bikes up a staircase to get around a security area closed off for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
People carry their bikes up a staircase to get around a security area closed off for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
TT

Paris Police Sealing Off Seine River Ahead of Olympics Opening Ceremony

People carry their bikes up a staircase to get around a security area closed off for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
People carry their bikes up a staircase to get around a security area closed off for the 2024 Summer Olympics, Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A special kind of iron curtain came down across central Paris on Thursday, with the beginning of an Olympic anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the River Seine sealing off a kilometers-long area to Parisians and tourists who hadn’t applied in advance for a pass.
The words on many lips were “QR code,” the pass that grants access beyond snaking metal barriers that delineate the security zone set up to protect the Olympic Games’ opening ceremony on July 26.
“I didn’t know it started today,” said Emmanuelle Witt, a 35-year-old communications freelancer who was stopped by police near the Alma bridge while biking across town. She desperately went on her phone to fill out the online form to get her QR code, unaware that the vetting process could take several days, The Associated Press reported.
Those with the precious code – either on their phones or printed out on pieces of paper – passed smoothly past police checkpoints at gaps in the barriers taller than most people.
Those without got mostly turned away – with no amount of grumbling and cajoling making officers budge.
“That’s too much, that’s over the top, that whole thing is a pain,” grumbled Nassim Bennamou, a delivery man who was denied access to the street leading to Notre Dame Cathedral on his scooter.
“Even the GPS is confused, I have no idea how I’m going to work today,” he added.
While authorities announced the code system last year and have been meeting with local residents for months to explain the restrictions, not everyone was aware. Officers patiently explained to visitors without the pass how to reach iconic Paris monuments without going through the restricted zone.
“We had no idea we needed a QR code,” said Takao Sakamoto, 55, who was denied access to the Eiffel Tower near the Bir Hakeim Metro station. Visiting from Japan with his wife, he took a photo of the tower from a distance, behind fences and police cars. “That will do,” Sakamoto remarked with despair.
On the other hand, visitors who were lucky enough to come across officers who leniently let them pass without QR codes and others who'd equipped themselves with them were treated to the sight of near-empty riverside boulevards that, in normal times, heave with traffic.
“There's no one around!” sang a happy cyclist on a street he had largely to himself. With police seemingly everywhere, another man walking past a riverside café with fewer than usual customers loudly quipped: “You can leave your money and cell phones on the tables, there's definitely no thieves!”
“It’s surreal, it really feels like we’re the only ones here,” said Sarah Bartnicka from Canada. Enjoying a morning jog with a friend, the 29-year-old took a selfie with a police officer on the deserted Iéna bridge to capture the moment.
Paris has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks, most notably in 2015. Up to 45,000 police and gendarmes as well as 10,000 soldiers are being deployed for Olympic security.
“I understand why they’re doing this,” said Carla Money, a 64-year-old American who managed to pass the barriers with her family.
Some business owners inside the security zone grumbled that sharply reduced foot-fall would hurt their bottom line.
“They’ve locked me up like a prisoner," said Raymond Pignol. His restaurant, L'Auberge Café, near the Pont Neuf that spans the Seine, is just inside the metal fencing.
The perimeter went into effect early Thursday morning and will last through the ceremony. As an exception, Paris has decided to hold the opening of its first Games in a century on the river rather than in a stadium, like previous host cities. Most of the river security measures will be lifted after the show.
Officers were under instructions to be polite and patient as employees on their way to work and others dealt with the perimeter and the passes for the first time. But Paris police chief Laurent Nunez said that after the initial 24 hours of being accommodating, officers would apply the rules much more firmly, with no more looking the other way for those without QR codes.



Mediocre Euros, Copa América Show There is Such a Thing as Too Much Football

At the Euros, transport infrastructure broke down, basic security was inept and illogical and no effort was made to tackle the scourge of beer being used as a projectile. - Reuters
At the Euros, transport infrastructure broke down, basic security was inept and illogical and no effort was made to tackle the scourge of beer being used as a projectile. - Reuters
TT

Mediocre Euros, Copa América Show There is Such a Thing as Too Much Football

At the Euros, transport infrastructure broke down, basic security was inept and illogical and no effort was made to tackle the scourge of beer being used as a projectile. - Reuters
At the Euros, transport infrastructure broke down, basic security was inept and illogical and no effort was made to tackle the scourge of beer being used as a projectile. - Reuters

On the one hand, the best side in both the Euros and Copa América ended up triumphant. On the other hand, there was just about everything else, from the general quality of play to the fact football’s authorities seem to have entirely lost the capacity to stage matches. However bad Uefa’s organisation of various aspects of the Euros was, what happened at Hard Rock Stadium was on a different level.

An inquiry will presumably be held to determine exactly who or what was to blame for the scenes that delayed kick-off by 75 minutes and led to as an estimated 7,000 fans without tickets gaining access to the ground, but what is clear is that there is need of major improvement before the stadium hosts seven games at the World Cup finals in 2026. It’s not just a question of more security: lengthy queues in searing heat are not a solution to anything.

What happened at Hard Rock Stadium was just the culmination of a month of desperate organisation. The tournament was hosted by Conmebol with little input from officials on the ground in the US, but lessons must be taken by Fifa before the World Cup returns to America in less than two years. Even before Sunday’s chaos, there had been the scenes at the semi-final as Uruguay’s players waded into the stand to, as they saw it, protect their families from Colombian fans.

At the Euros, transport infrastructure broke down, basic security was inept and illogical and no effort was made to tackle the scourge of beer being used as a projectile.

An inability to handle large crowds has been an increasing feature of recent Uefa tournaments, and it shouldn’t be forgotten that eight people died in a crush outside an Africa Cup of Nations game in Yaoundé, Cameroon, two years ago. Although many have said that there were few such issues at the last World Cup in Qatar, the circumstances were very different.

Both the Euros and the Copa América suffered from poor playing surfaces. Frankfurt was the worst surface in Germany, cutting up dreadfully, apparently because of a poor re-lay after an NFL game was staged there in November. In Düsseldorf, Uefa insisted the pitch be relaid three times between the end of the domestic season and the start of the Euros; not surprisingly, there was no time for it to bed in. There were problems in Hamburg and Gelsenkirchen as well.

At Copa América, the problem was playing in NFL stadiums, which meant pitches were often narrower than usual and that natural turf had to be hastily laid over artificial surfaces. Again, bedding in was a problem, leading to larger and looser divots, while in certain cases it appeared pallets had not been adequately fitted so the joins between adjoining tiles created gaps and ridges. Given eight of the 14 stadiums will be used at the World Cup, that is something for Fifa to consider with a degree of urgency. Conmebol seemed more concerned with the nonsense of a Shakira concert that meant half-time of the final had to be extended. How about just doing the football right?

But beyond the specifics, there has been something more existential going on. Neither the Euros nor Copa América produced consistently high-level football. Uruguay aside, pressing was limited. That’s often the case in the international game and is understandable, given the lack of time available for coaches to work with their players. Matches are far more regularly determined by individual moments. The lower quality is often offset by a greater sense of struggle and drama. In both tournaments this summer, though, the sense has been of fatigue.
Everybody is exhausted. That’s why teams so often, having taken the lead, sat back: try to hold on, run less, go again only if we have to. It’s why so many players underperformed. It’s why the most thrilling football tended to be played by countries with fewer players operating at the highest club level.

In part, that’s still the hangover from the Covid lockdown and the subsequent disruption in the calendar caused by a December World Cup in 2022. For Uefa and Conmebol there have been three major international tournaments in three years. Nobody has had a proper break since before the pandemic. On top of that, Fifa wants everybody to come back to the US next summer for the Club World Cup, although with players and clubs protesting, no venues booked and no TV deal signed, there must be at least some doubt that will go ahead.

Something, somewhere, has to give. The present fixture list is unsustainable, for players and – possibly – for the audience. The game’s authorities have to give that serious consideration, but as the last month has shown, both in Europe and in the Americas, it’s been a long time since they could be trusted to act for the good of the actual game.

The Guardian Sport