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Champions League final: Liverpool fans unfairly blamed for Paris fiasco to "divert attention", says French Senate

Champions League final on May 28 between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France was overshadowed by serious problems; dangerous crushes formed as a result of access issues and many fans were tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed by police

A fan stands on the fence in front of the Stade de France
Image: A fan stands on the fence in front of the Stade de France

Liverpool fans were unfairly blamed for the fiasco surrounding the Champions League final to "divert attention" from organisational failures, a scathing French Senate report says.

The senate, the upper house of the French parliament, published its provisional findings on Wednesday, 46 days after the showpiece event at the Stade de France which was overshadowed by crowd problems before and after the match.

Liverpool fans were sprayed with tear gas and the match was delayed by more than half an hour to deal with overcrowding in the stadium surroundings, before the initial response from the French government condemned the Reds supporters and accused them of arriving with fake tickets.

The senate's report found rhetoric masked failures by the French authorities around the organisation of the match, saying: "It is unfair to have wanted to make supporters of the Liverpool team bear the responsibility for the disturbances that occurred, as the Minister of the Interior did to divert attention from the inability of the state to adequately manage the crowds present and to curb the action of several hundred violent and co-ordinated offenders."

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Sky Sports News' chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol says the events outside the Stade de France do not tally with what French interior minister Gerald Darmanin considered fraud

The report found the chaos had been caused by a "chain of events and malfunctions" in the days and hours leading up to kick-off.

It added: "The systems put in place had major shortcomings with regard to the intelligence (absence of hooligans but presence of delinquents in large numbers), the transport routes for supporters (removal of a drop-off route at the surroundings of the stadium) and insufficient communication.

"It is not only in the execution that problems arose. Upstream, the crisis scenarios were insufficiently worked on and did not demonstrate the necessary flexibility in the face of so many unanticipated events."

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The report's co-chairman Laurent Lafon said its findings had been agreed by every senator involved in the investigation, which he said were caused by a "chain of administrative errors" which allowed all parties involved in the organisation of the Champions League final to feel they were blameless in their individual roles.

"The gravity of what happened at the Stade de France shows that there are many decisions to be taken to ensure this doesn't happen again at the Rugby World Cup or the Olympic Games," he said.

"It is unfair to have sought to blame Liverpool supporters for the disturbances as the minister of the interior [Gérald Darmanin] has done to deflect attention from the state's inability to adequately manage the crowd.

"There was a need to communicate clearly about transporting the fans from the train station between the chief of police, the French Football Federation, and the train operators but this didn't happen.

Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold reacts at the end of the Champions League final soccer match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Saint Denis near Paris, Saturday, May 28, 2022. Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 1-0. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Image: Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold reacts at the end of the Champions League final soccer match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Saint Denis near Paris, Saturday, May 28, 2022. Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 1-0. (AP Photo/

"We recommend communicating with football supporters more and improving the attractiveness of the area around the Stade de France so that people are willing to arrive early.

"We want the authorities' view of football supporters to change, that is a strong recommendation that we are making."

Liverpool CEO HOGAN: French government should apologise to fans

Reacting to the report, Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan welcomed the findings and called on the French government to apologise for what happened on the night.

"It's clear that what the Senate put forward was that the issues caused at Stade de France were based on a number of failures through the organisation of the event itself and in no case was that to be blamed or caused by the fans," he told the official Liverpool website.

"There were a number of accusations, frankly, put out there immediately after the event and in fact blaming fans for what happened on that night. I think what we're seeing from the Senate clearly shows that is not the case. They have clearly gone through a process here over the course of the last several weeks, spoken with a number of individuals, a number of different stakeholders, so we would welcome and support the 15 recommendations that came out of the report.

"The Senate has asked that the French government review their findings and support their findings, and we would certainly welcome that. We would echo the comments made that no fan, football fan or otherwise - it doesn't matter if you're going to a football match or a concert etc - no fans should have to deal with what both Liverpool and Real Madrid fans dealt with on the night at Stade de France.

"Beyond that, I would hope and certainly we would expect that this review would play a part in the UEFA independent investigation as well.

"Finally, I would say I was incredibly encouraged to see one of the senators specifically apologise to the Liverpool fans and to the Real Madrid fans for what happened on the night. And I would ask that the French government do the same. Not just to the fans of Liverpool and Real Madrid but to both clubs, who have had reputational issues coming out of the final and we would hope they would extend an apology where one is deserved."

What happened at the Champions League final?

The showpiece match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in May was overshadowed by serious problems surrounding the stadium.

Dangerous crushes formed as a result of access issues and many fans were tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed by police.

Some of Jurgen Klopp's relatives experienced the trouble first-hand, but they did not tell the German until afterwards.

French senators last month demanded the state recognise responsibility and identify guilty parties behind the chaos outside the national stadium that marred the event.

Klopp: Family were caught up in CL final chaos
Klopp: Family were caught up in CL final chaos

Jurgen Klopp revealed some of his family were caught up in the chaos prior to the Champions League final in Paris.

They also questioned why government officials allowed surveillance video of the scene, in which police pepper-sprayed fans and families, to be deleted instead of ordering it to be handed over to investigators.

Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association Chair Ted Morris also gave his account on what happened on the day of the Champions League final to the French Senate.

Morris told Sky Sports News: "We arrived at the station at 3pm and it was surprising that there wasn't a single police officer.

"We headed up towards the stadium and went to a McDonald's for three hours. In those three hours, I've never seen so many fans pickpocketed in my life - it was one after the other. It was absolutely bizarre. That gave us an insight into how this day was going.

"Then we made our way round to the soft ticket check area, which just wasn't fit for purpose at all. There were local people just walking in. I had a conversation with one of our police officers from Merseyside Police at around 6.15pm and he was extremely worried by events.

"It was just chaotic. There was no organisation, no police presence on the turnstiles to help or even act as a deterrent.

Real Madrid

"I had no interest in the game because, for two hours, I was getting text messages from people at the club and our disabled supporters about the distress that was going on outside, so the game just became irrelevant. We could have won 6-0 and I still wouldn't have cared.

"I was going to leave at half-time and I got a message saying don't leave at half-time, it's not safe. So we stayed until the 86th minute, left the ground and the steward wouldn't open the gate. We had a heated discussion and he opened the gate because there were still loads of locals trying to get in.

"We headed off towards the underground station called La Plaine. We went under the underpass and there were lots of policemen there. As we left the underpass, literally within a minute, there were hundreds of locals to our right-hand side just attacking us. I'm in a wheelchair and I was terrified.

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Paris police chief Didier Lallement issues an apology to the Liverpool fans who were at the Champions League final after some were tear gassed outside the Stade de France

"There were bottles raining in, there were knives; they were running in, assaulting people and running out. And when we eventually got to the train station, the police tear-gassed us. I'll never understand that, no matter how they try and explain it.

"We went up in the accessible lift to the platform and there was a little girl about six years old in a Liverpool kit with her dad. Her eyes were streaming, red raw and she was completely and utterly traumatised. All she'd done was go to Paris to watch a festival of football and how she'll ever be able to go to a football match or even trust the authorities is beyond me. It was unnecessary and absolutely horrific."

'This is not just about Liverpool fans, it's about all football supporters'

Speaking on Sky Sports News, The Anfield Wrap's John Gibbons explained how the campaigning against the treatment is on behalf of the wider football community.

"You hope to hear of more accountability," he said. "The quotes we've been getting through from UEFA is a disgrace to be honest with you so it looks like they're not taking any responsibility.

"The blame has been placed on the fans in the same way the French government ministers. I want accountability and I also want no football fans to have to put up with what we went through.

"It's not about Liverpool fans, it's about all football supporters feeling they can go and celebrate the game. That's what it was in Madrid, it was in Kiev and it should've been in Paris.

"You want guarantees from UEFA that in the future they'll make sure it's much smoother and that supporters who have spent a lot of money to be there are treated much better and are safer.

"After what we'd been through, we couldn't really care about the result, and it was a Champions League final."

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