Before the final of the Champions League, there is almost a catastrophe. Thousands of Liverpool fans can’t get into the stadium despite a ticket and are chased away with tear gas. The dispute over who is to blame escalates. UEFA commissions an external report.
After the chaos at the entrance to the final of the Champions League in Paris, the mutual recriminations intensified. Liverpool’s mayor criticized the use of tear gas by the French police against British fans as “extremely disgusting”, France’s sports minister, on the other hand, sees the responsibility primarily among Liverpool supporters. The processing of the incidents surrounding Real Madrid’s 1-0 victory in the premier class final should take some time, and the European Football Union UEFA is also required.
The association announced on Monday evening that the events surrounding the admission of spectators will be processed by an external team of experts. UEFA has commissioned an independent report, led by former Portuguese Education and Sport Minister Tiago Brandão Rodrigues. After the report is finalized and published, next steps will be evaluated, UEFA said.
“The comprehensive review examines the decision-making, responsibility and behavior of all bodies involved in the final,” said the association. In order to maintain independence, Brandão Rodrigues will perform the task free of charge.
Meanwhile, French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin defended the actions of the police on Monday. “The decisions made prevented deaths,” he said after consultations with Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and other officials. Darmanin explained that by lifting the outer first access control, people were prevented from being crushed.
On the other hand, Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson, who was at the Stade de France herself, complained to the BBC on Monday that the police had acted “really brutally”. In addition, the organization of the football game was “chaotic”. Liverpool supporters should be given an apology. “Our fans have been stereotyped in terms of their behavior. I get angrier and angrier the more stories I hear,” Anderson said. “Fans need to be treated with more respect.”
Earlier, the mayor (Labour party) had announced that she would ask British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss for answers from UEFA and French President Emmanuel Macron to investigate the incidents. “It’s a shame to blame the fans,” Anderson tweeted.
France’s Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, on the other hand, said that 30,000 to 40,000 people had rushed to the Stade de France without tickets or with counterfeit tickets and had caused massive security problems there. It still needs to be clarified where such a large number of counterfeit tickets came from, the minister told broadcaster RTL in Paris on Monday. She also accused Liverpool of not taking good care of their fans and leaving them to themselves, unlike Real.
The minister regretted the use of tear gas, which also affected uninvolved fans, families and children. All lessons should be learned from Saturday night’s events, also with a view to the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games in France.
The police in Paris registered more than 100 arrests and 230 injuries around the final. UEFA explained the chaos at the entrance to the large number of fans without valid tickets. The turnstiles at the entrance for Liverpool fans were blocked because thousands of supporters with fake tickets could not go through them. The police used tear gas. The kick-off time was pushed back by more than half an hour. Fan representatives criticize a one-sided representation by UEFA.
“The fans here are the victims of organizational failure and are certainly not the culprits,” said Ronan Evain from the Football Supporters Europe (FSE) fan alliance on the ARD “Sportschau”. “They bear no responsibility for the fiasco.”
