French authorities said on Sunday that 780 people had been arrested across the country as overnight celebrations of Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League victory over Arsenal were marred by violent clashes and a road accident that left a young man dead.
Thousands of people poured into the streets of Paris for the match and to enjoy PSG’s victory in the final held late Saturday in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
But some gangs clashed with police, around 22,000 of whom were deployed across France after the unrest last year, when PSG also won the match.
Highlighting an increasing use of fireworks targeting law enforcement, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said in a news conference that 57 security forces were injured and “219 participants were injured in France, including eight seriously.”
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The Paris prosecutor’s office announced the death of a young man in his twenties after he crashed his motocross bike head-on into concrete blocks on the exit of the Paris ring road.
Another young man was seriously injured in a knife attack in Paris, allegedly over a robbery, the prosecutor’s office added.
Nunez said a small number of thefts and looting had occurred in about 15 cities across the country and incidents of violence had been recorded in 71 municipalities.
The 780 arrests were a 32 percent increase compared to last year’s celebration of PSG’s Champions League victory, the minister noted.
Victory Parade
About 100,000 people are expected to gather on the Champs-de-Mars in front of the Eiffel Tower for a parade on Sunday afternoon, including the players, before being received at the Elysee Palace by President Emmanuel Macron.
Nunez promised “a strong law enforcement response” during the celebration of the players’ return and fines for “obstructing traffic” in the event of infringement on the Paris ring road.
The district mayor of Paris’s 8th arrondissement – home to the famous Champs-Elysees where 20,000 people gathered after PSG’s victory – called for «zero gatherings» on the iconic Avenue as the only way to prevent further violence.
On Saturday evening, “Champs-Elysees Avenue and its surroundings ceased to be a place of celebration and became an arena of urban guerrilla warfare,” city hall said in a statement.
“Since it has become impossible to celebrate a match without descending into riots, the only common sense response is a new doctrine: ‘zero gatherings’,” it demanded.
Nunez dismissed the idea, saying it would “take up almost half of the security deployment.” Nearly 6,000 police and gendarmes were deployed for security during Sunday’s festivities.
Published on May 31, 2026
