France players to honor victims of Paris attacks in 2015

PARIS (AP) — The French soccer federation will pay tribute to the victims of the November 2015 attacks that targeted the Bataclan theater, Paris cafés and the national stadium in assaults that killed more than 130 people and injured over 400.

France’s national team hosts Ukraine on Nov. 13 in a men’s World Cup qualifier, 10 years after the worst attack on French soil since World War II.

To commemorate the anniversary, the French federation said Friday it will take part in national ceremonies honoring the victims.

The match will not be played at the Stade de France, one of the sites attacked that night, but at the Parc des Princes in Paris. Players will wear the Bleuet de France, an emblem symbolizing remembrance and solidarity with victims.

A fundraising campaign will be held around the stadium, and a minute’s silence observed before kickoff. A banner reading “Football for Peace” will be unfurled at the center of the pitch.

The night of the attack was a balmy Friday evening, with the city’s bars and restaurants packed. At the Bataclan concert venue, the American band Eagles of Death Metal were playing to a full house. At the national stadium, just outside Paris, a soccer match between France and Germany had just begun, attended by then-President Francois Hollande and then-Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In the bloody events, jihadists detonated suicide vests and opened fire on cafes in the French capital before massacring spectators of a concert at the Bataclan.

The Stade de France, in the suburb of Saint-Denis, was the sole site outside Paris to come under assault from Islamic State extremists. The three suicide bombers struck outside the stadium and killed one man. At least one of the bombers had tried to get in, despite not having a ticket, but was turned away by a security guard, Salim Toorabaly.

The person who died in Saint-Denis was Manuel Dias, a Portuguese retiree who drove busloads of fans to the stadium to earn a little extra money.