Jacques Lambert: ‘Euro 2016 will not be cancelled because of terror attacks’

“I know everyone is vigiliant”. “But unfortunately I’m not completely surprised”.

Sporting events across France this weekend have been cancelled, but the national team will play England on Tuesday at Wembley as planned.

“Anything is possible, anything is conceivable”, Lambert said.

“Wondering whether Euro 2016 must be cancelled is playing the game of the terrorists”. Millions will use these zones during the tournament’s 51 matches, potentially offering 51 opportunities for terror to strike again.

The suspended Uefa president, Michel Platini, a former France worldwide, described himself as distraught.

“Whoever believes such an attack could not happen elsewhere is mistaken”.

Noel Le Graet, has admitted he is “even more worried” about security at next year’s European Championships, following Friday’s attacks in Paris.

President Francois Hollande was in attendance at the Stade de France and was evacuated from the stadium, which holds a full capacity of more than 81,000. Three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France during Friday’s friendly between France and Germany, the stadium that will host both the opening game and the final on 10 July. Sydney Football Club fans held up a vast French tricolore ahead of an A-League match against Melbourne Victory, while the ice was illuminated in red, white and blue before a Washington Capitals NHL game with Calgary Flames. “I felt a great shock and a lot of emotion”.

Inside the stadium, fans tried to stay calm as news unfolded of the bloody events.

Then he spoke with Platini.

“In the same way, Friday night’s terrifying tragedy will have the same effect”.

How to keep stadiums safe will be of paramount important in the months leading up to the tournament, but protecting crowds as they arrive was already problematic enough, given the need to keep rival fans apart. In early January, gunmen murdered 18 people after attacking satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, a Jewish supermarket and a policewoman on patrol.

But Lambert is confident that security measures at the tournament will be sufficient to cope with the renewed threat, and said it was wrong to be thinking about making alternative plans. “I will not reveal what we are going to do because that would alert our opponents”.