Euro 2016 will kick off tonight in France, with the largest-ever continental tournament taking place amid terror threats and strike action.
The hosts will kick-off against Romania tonight in the same national stadium attacked by three suicide bombers last November, and with the nation under an extended state of emergency.
The Stade de France attack was the beginning of the 13 November atrocity and though the least deadly - a Portuguese bus driver was the only person among 130 killed that day to die at the stadium - it has shaped preparations.
Jacques Lambert, president of the organising committee, admitted as much this week.
"We want to lift ourselves out of the negative spiral around security that was imposed on us," he said.
No previous edition of the European football championship, and perhaps no other major sporting event, has had to contend with the security challenges that provide the inescapable backdrop to what was supposed to be a month of football en fete.
Security is a staple narrative of sport in the modern era of mega events, from the World Cup to the Olympics, but it has never been more relevant or real than at Euro 2016.
The crowds of young, care-free supporters who gather at stadiums and fanzones are what give tournaments their colour.
They are also a security nightmare, a soft target for terrorists who have demonstrated their capacity more than once in Europe in the last 18 months.
So preparations are in place.
The police and army personnel deployed this month would not fit inside the Stade de France.
There are 90,000 on duty but they are exhausted, with millions of hours of unclaimed overtime after more than a year on high terror alert and after a spring of civil discontent in France.
Supporters expecting a blind eye to be turned to minor indiscretions and altercations might bear in mind that patience among a force not known for its light touch may be in short supply.
Former police commando chief Frederic Gallois told Sky News: "The problem is not numbers. There are enough of them, but they are tired and stressed.
"They have been operating at the highest level for 18 months. The problem may not be the big event, but how they react to the small event."
The police are not the only ones who are weary.
Parisians have done their best to return to normal and in the early summer sun this week they and their city has looked their refined best.
But they are ready for an excuse to celebrate as they did when France won the World Cup here 18 years ago.
For this, they will look to the players preparing at the heart of the security bubble.
For the first time, 24 teams will contest the Henri Delauny trophy and it looks the most open as well as the largest tournament.
The hosts have a high-class squad capable of emulating Les Bleus 1998 vintage.
World Champions Germany, holders Spain, and a Belgian side full of familiar Premier League names are all also among the favourites.
The Home Nations have never been better represented.
Wales (58 years) and Northern Ireland (30 years) are contesting their first major finals in decades, alongside England, so often exposed in this competition.
Roy Hodgson has the youngest squad of any nation, with an average age of just 25, and expectations calibrated appropriately. England however are only ever one bad result from a disproportionate backlash.
If ever there was a tournament to ease the parochial ties this is it.
Albania and Iceland are here, defying the odds and population statistics, and the list of great players missing through injury is mercifully short.
France's troubles will not be solved by football.
But a month of optimistic and uncynical sport, enjoyed in friendly rivalry by fans of 24 nations on a continent grappling with its own collective identity, could send a powerful message.
It's only a game, but sometimes that's the point.
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