Riyadh Season to Host IV Crown Showdown on Saturday

Photo by SPA
Photo by SPA
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Riyadh Season to Host IV Crown Showdown on Saturday

Photo by SPA
Photo by SPA

The IV Crown Showdown will take place on October 12 as part of Riyadh Season.

The event will feature an undisputed light heavyweight championship match between Russian rivals Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Bivol expressed gratitude to Saudi Arabia and Riyadh Season for hosting the event.

According to SPA, he thanked his coaches, supporters, and everyone who has been part of his journey.

Beterbiev also expressed his excitement and anticipation for the match.
Today, the boxers will undergo official weigh-ins 24 hours before the start of the highly anticipated championship bout.



France Tightens Security for Israel Football Match after Clashes in Amsterdam

France's players arrive for a training session at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on November 13, 2024, on the eve of the UEFA Nations League A Group A2 football match between France and Israel. (AFP)
France's players arrive for a training session at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on November 13, 2024, on the eve of the UEFA Nations League A Group A2 football match between France and Israel. (AFP)
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France Tightens Security for Israel Football Match after Clashes in Amsterdam

France's players arrive for a training session at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on November 13, 2024, on the eve of the UEFA Nations League A Group A2 football match between France and Israel. (AFP)
France's players arrive for a training session at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on November 13, 2024, on the eve of the UEFA Nations League A Group A2 football match between France and Israel. (AFP)

French authorities have stepped up security in Paris ahead of a France-Israel football match on Thursday, hoping to avoid a repeat of violent clashes between locals and Israeli fans in Amsterdam last week.

The Nations League match at the Stade de France comes at a fraught moment, with diplomatic relations between French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu strained by Israel's war in Gaza.

Some 4,000 police will secure the event, deployed in the stadium, outside the ground and on public transport, the Paris police force said.

"It's an exceptional measure, three to four times greater than what we usually mobilize," Paris police chief Laurent Nunez told RTL radio on Wednesday.

Only French and Israel flags would be allowed inside the stadium, he added.

Macron will attend the game in a show of solidarity, while Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said after the Amsterdam clashes there was never any question the game would go ahead as planned.

Still, turnout will likely be low, with just 20,000 fans expected in the 80,000 capacity stadium north of Paris.

French supporters' group Les Irreductibles Français conducted a survey among its members, which showed 15% would boycott the match due to the Israel-Gaza war, while around 30% cited "security risks."

Passions over Israel's conduct in Gaza run high in France, home to Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities. Reports of anti-Semitic acts increased by an "unprecedented" 284% in 2023, France's Human rights commission said in June, while anti-Muslim acts rose around a third.

Israeli soccer fans and locals clashed in Amsterdam last week, with at least five Israelis injured after Maccabi Tel Aviv's Europa League game at Ajax.

Aurélien Bernheïm, co-founder of the Movement for French Jews, a right-wing Zionist youth group, said around 30 of his organization's members would attend the match.

"But I won't hide it, many of these young people were scared to go as they had in their heads these appalling images from Amsterdam," he said.

Walid Attalah, president of the Associations of Palestinians in Ile de France, said the match should have been cancelled.

"Russia has been banned because there was the occupation of Ukraine, it was illegal, there were war crimes, but Israel is never sanctioned for what it does," he said.

Some supporters, however, shrugged off concerns.

"I'm not worried," said Yannick Vanhee, who leads a French supporters association in Dunkirk. "Authorities have been putting more and more security into these events."