PSG and Dinamo Zagreb fans clash

PARIS (AFP) –

Dinamo Zagreb players take part in a training session at the Parc des Princes stadium in Paris, on the eve of the UEFA Champions League Group A football match between PSG and Dinamo Zagreb.

Supporters from French side Paris Saint Germain and Croatian champions Dinamo Zagreb clashed on the eve of their Champions League game here on Monday.

The scuffles ended with 24 people being arrested and one Croat supporter was seriously injured according to police, who intervened at the popular night haunt of the Place de la Bastille and restored calm shortly before midnight (2300GMT).

On Sunday French Interior Minister Manuel Valls had imposed a travel ban on Dinamo fans coming to France for the match, explaining that he wanted “to avoid any serious security risks to people and property”.

Valls considered that there was a real chance of “serious incidents occurring should fans from both sides come across each other”.

He added he had been informed by Croatian authorities that 150 to 200 violent supporters from a gang called the “Blue Bad Boys” would be travelling without tickets for the match.

As a result of this information Valls had decided to forbid “from November 5 to midday November 7, the travel either individually or as a group, by road, rail or air of all Dinamo supporters to French border points and the Ile-de-France region (the Paris area)”.

Some 80 PSG fans had been stopped on the Slovenian border with Croatia and refused entry last month on their way to the two sides match there.