8 – The beautiful game confronted by pure evil
At Outside90 we never like to mix football and politics. It is very rarely a positive combination.
But on 13 November in Paris, our game met with an evil that simply cannot be ignored. It was attacked by the warped ideology of extremism.
The pictures that were seen at the Stade de France that night were the type that become etched in one’s mind. An explosion could be heard from outside the stadium as Les Blues hosted Germany in a friendly.
The incident could have been much worse had the bomber not been denied entry to the stadium by a security guard who is now a hero.
France won the match 2-0 but the result and indeed what transpired in Saint Denis was a drop in the ocean compared to what was happening elsewhere in the city. Amid the panic, however, came a simplistic yet significant act of unity by the French crowd.
The fans sang the French national anthem as they evacuated the stadium. La Marseillaise became a symbol of solidarity in the aftermath of the attacks internationally.
We commend the heroism of football’s constituents while we remember that this amazing sport, like you and me, is not immune from the wicked motivations of terrorism.
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