French Sports Minister Patrick Kanner (left), Justice minister Christiane Taubira (second from right) and junior minister for Sports Thierry Braillard (right) visit the Stade de France in suburban Paris yesterday. (AFP)

AFP/Paris


French Sports Minister Patrick Kanner said yesterday there was “no question” of cancelling Euro 2016 in France despite last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris.
“The Euro will be staged in conditions of maximum security, strengthened as a result of the events which we have just lived through.
“There is no question of cancelling this great popular festival,” said Kanner, speaking four days after a killing spree in the French capital and Stade de France left 129 dead and hundreds wounded.
“In no case should sport be stopped by terrorism,” added Kanner, who was at the national stadium on Friday when it came under attack by suicide bombers during the France-Germany friendly.
“We’ve shown that we are capable of making our stadia safe and we will draw all the consequences in order to raise the security bar even higher.”
Three terrorists blew themselves up outside the Stade on the northern outskirts of Paris during the game. Mass panic among the 80,000 crowd was avoided by the match being allowed to continue, with the crowd eventually dispersing without serious incident.
French Justice Minister Christiane Taubira spoke about the “miraculous alchemy that prevented a massacre” at the national stadium with the terrorists killing one person.
Kanner’s comments come less than 24 hours after European football’s governing body also insisted it was business as usual as far as the 2016 championships were concerned.
“The Euro final draw will go ahead as scheduled on 12 December at the Palais des Congres in Paris and the final tournament will be played in France from 10 June to 10 July 2016,” UEFA said in a statement.
Earlier yesterday, Junior Sports minister Thierry Braillard announced France’s Ligue 1 and Ligue 2 matches would go ahead as scheduled.

Germany v Netherlands friendly called off

DPA/Hanover, Germany


An international friendly between Germany and the Netherlands was called off less than 90 minutes before the planned kick-off yesterday, police said.
No official reason was given immediately for the measure. The game was to take place four days after the terror attacks in Paris amid tight security.
The stadium was sealed off for half an hour earlier in the evening after the discovery of a suspicious suitcase. The HDI arena and some streets in the area were closed before police said the object posed no threat.
Extra police, many armed with automatic weapons, has been deployed for the game. All available police officers were being deployed in Hanover, a police spokeswoman said without giving further details.
The German football federation (DFB) had considered calling off yesterday’s match as Germany were playing France at the Stade de France north of Paris when the attacks occurred, with three incidents taking place close to the stadium.
However federation and team officials agreed to go ahead with the friendly international in solidarity with France and the relatives and victims of the Paris attacks.
Chancellor Angela Merkel and several senior cabinet members had been due to attend the match at the HDI Arena.
It was the second cancellation after the Paris attacks, as Belgium’s friendly with European champions Spain, also set for yesterday, was called off late Monday.