A particularly substantial security system will be deployed on Saturday in France for the Champions League final which will pit PSG against Arsenal in Budapest, with 22,000 police and gendarmes mobilized in France, including 8,000 in Paris and its surrounding areas, Laurent Nuñez announced on Wednesday May 27 in an interview with Brut.
Last year, during the Champions League final won in Munich by the Parisian club against Inter Milan (5-0), the police had already been deployed massively with 5,400 police and gendarmes mobilized in the Paris metropolitan area.
The victory gave rise to violence, notably on the Avenue des Champs-Élysées and around the Parc des Princes where the match was broadcast as will be the case on Saturday.
Pedestrianization of the Champs-Élysées
In mid-May, during an interview with La Tribune on Sunday, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who expects a large turnout in the event of a PSG victory, specified that there would be a “pedestrianization of the Champs-Élysées from the middle and a police force to contain any excess.” He assured “not to have fear” and to be “serene and determined”.
In the event of a victory on Saturday, the minister said that the Paris police headquarters would work with the club to present the trophy on Sunday in the capital. He confirmed that the hypothesis of this celebration at the Champ-de-Mars, the esplanade at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in the center of Paris, was being studied.
In 2025, the police made 563 arrests on the evening of the victory, including 491 in Paris, which led to 307 police custody. 79 other people were arrested the following night. Laurent Nuñez was then police prefect of Paris, and Bruno Retailleau minister of the interior.
