France’s football team have been praised by Germany’s acting FA president, Reinhard Rauball, after they refused to leave the Stade de France on Friday night in a show of solidarity with their opponents.
Germany were playing a friendly with France when the terrorist attacks took place and as more details of the terrible events emerged, a decision was made that the German team would stay in the stadium throughout the night.
“We wanted to eliminate any risk and that’s why we decided not to drive through Paris and go back to the hotel which probably wouldn’t have been 100 per cent safe,” Oliver Bierhoff, Germany’s business manager indicated. “We had to stay in the dressing room – we had no choice.”
Hearing that their German opponents – who had been evacuated from their team hotel earlier in the day – would remain in the stadium, the French team opted to do the same.
“The French said that they were staying as long as Germany had to stay,” explained Rauball who described the decision as “an outstanding gesture of camaraderie”.
The German team were able to leave the stadium the following morning having spent the night in their dressing room on mattresses.
They arrived safely back in Frankfurt later on Saturday.
