Last Friday night, almost 20 minutes into a soccer match at the Stade de France between France and Germany, an explosion was heard coming from outside the stadium. A few minutes later, another explosion was heard. Then another.
While the game inside the stadium continued on due to an alert decision by officials, the rest of Paris was under attack by ISIS-backed militants. By the end of the night, 129 people were pronounced dead and hundreds of others injured. And it could have been much worse: A security guard working the game found an explosives-laden vest on one of the attackers while frisking him, therefore keeping the suicide bomber from detonating his vest inside of the stadium.
Soccer — the most popular sport in France, one that is ingrained in the core of French culture — was one of the terrorists’ “precisely chosen” targets.
“Many French follow [soccer] news from morning to evening,” Carole Bouchard, a freelance sportswriter from Paris, said in an email. “It’s become a cultural thing. All national matches draw a lot of interest, even test ones. You bring your kids and friends to games. It touches many generations and all social classes. Everybody feels involved.”
According to Lars Rensmann, an associate professor of political science at John Cabot University and the co-author of Gaming the World: How Sports Are Reshaping Global Politics and Culture, that is exactly why a suicide bomber tried to enter the Stade de France that evening.
“In many ways, sports are a place for social inclusion, a universal language that facilitates and promotes progressive social values,” he told ThinkProgress. “[ISIS] is attacking those values.”
Of course, this was far from the first time terrorism has infiltrated sports. From the 2014 Boston marathon to the 1972 Olympics, the 1996 Centennial Olympic park bombings in Atlanta to the 2009 attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan, extremists have attacked the world of sports from all angles.
But on Tuesday evening, the two teams who kept playing through the Paris attacks set out to return to the sport they loved and play through the fear. In London, the French team was treated to a touching tribute before their game at Wembley; at the same time in Hannover, the German team was sent into hiding after a bomb scare canceled their match. One stadium was filled with hope and healing. The other was empty.
Bouchard was at a bar in Paris with friends when the attacks began, and was caught up in the chaos and confusion on the streets. She said that while Parisians are currently coming to terms with the fact that life will be very different from now on, she hopes that France won’t succumb to the fear and anger and lose its soul in the aftermath.
Which is exactly why what happened on Tuesday night in London was so significant.
Just four days after the attacks, England hosted the French national team at Wembley Stadium for their previously scheduled friendly. A total of 71,223 fans came to the game, and the hostility and tension that often appears at a sporting match was nowhere to be found.
Thousands of people showed their support for France with flags or face paint or signs. The managers of both teams joined Prince William as he carried wreaths on the pitch before the match. The players from both teams joined together and sang the French national anthem, La Marseillaise.
WATCH: Wembley Stadium joins in on singing French national anthem, La Marseillaise, ahead of kickoff. #ENGvFRA https://t.co/A33fVM237x
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) November 17, 2015
Then the players lined up together, alternating between French and English, before forming a circle at midfield for what one writer called a “haunting, immaculately-observed” moment of silence.
It was a powerful symbol of strength and an emotional showcase of solidarity for the French national team, who shared a deeper connection with the victims of the Paris attacks than just their nationality. Midfielder Lassana Diarra’s cousin, Asta Diakite — whom he considered a “rock star” and a “big sister” — was killed in the attack at Le Bataclan; his teammate Antoine Griezmann’s sister was also at the concert hall but survived. Both players made appearances in the game, and were greeted enthusiastically by the crowd.
After 9/11, sports were credited with helping America heal, though it took time to return to anything resembling normalcy. MLB delayed games for a day, the NFL delayed games for a week, and other sports, such as NASCAR and MLS, all changed their schedules in the immediate aftermath. It was understandable, given the circumstances, and it would have also been understandable for the match at Wembley to be postponed or canceled altogether. But the French didn’t want to wait.
“We see it as a show of defiance,” said Roy Hodgson, England’s manager, said before the match. “The French team and the French federation were very keen that the game would go ahead, just to make certain that the terrorists won’t win and force games to be stopped.”
But while the match in Wembley went off without a hitch, elsewhere in Europe the return to the previously scheduled escape of sports wasn’t as seamless. A match between Spain and Belgium was canceled due to security fears, while the game between the Netherlands and Germany was canceled 90 minutes before kickoff.
Police believed there to be a “credible threat” of explosives to the Hannover stadium that was supposed to host, among thousands of others, German chancellor Angela Merkel. The German national team — which was on a bus en route to the stadium when the match was canceled and the stadium evacuated — was sent to an undisclosed location for safety reasons.
“In light of what happened in France, hearing that the game has been called off under suspicious circumstances only leads to an increased sense of insecurity,” Hans-Dieter Hermann, the sports psychologist for the German national team, said. “When the bus suddenly changed route, and we were told it had been called off, the atmosphere was noticeably tense.”
“The game would have been good both as a statement and for the players psychologically — for everyone,” he continued. “[T]he match was meant to be an opportunity for the players to make a stand. The boys wanted a piece of sporting normality, but also to show solidarity with France and the victims.”
While the German authorities cannot be faulted for being cautious at this time, and the safety of the public should always be a priority, Rensmann noted that it’s important not to let fear take over in these situations.
“Sporting events are a public place where cultural and social battles are put on display,” he said.
“The terrorists want us to be intimidated and not to celebrate the joy of life in sports. If we sacrifice our freedom in the face of security and overreact, then they succeed.”