Sky Sports News chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol recalls his memories from the Champions League final in Paris, where thousands of Liverpool fans were unable to get into the ground; nearly a year on, UEFA have finally admitted it was their fault, after initially blaming the supporters
Tuesday 6 February 2024 16:34, UK
Now we know what we always knew.
Liverpool fans didn't arrive late and Liverpool fans didn't try to bunk in en masse without tickets.
Now we know what we always knew.
What happened on May 28, 2022 was the fault of UEFA, the French authorities and the French police.
A Champions League final should be a celebration of football but in Paris it turned into a nightmare for tens of thousands of supporters because of failures on the part of the people who were supposed to be looking after them.
To make matters worse, Liverpool fans were then blamed for the failures when they had done absolutely nothing wrong.
Their restraint and their knowledge of what had happened at Hillsborough in 1989 prevented an already serious situation from becoming even worse.
Thousands of fans were indiscriminately pepper sprayed and tear gassed as the French police lost control.
Hundreds of fans were attacked and mugged by local gangs of youths after the game when most of the police presence had disappeared.
Some 115 fans were injured and up to 3,000 Liverpool fans with tickets left without getting into the stadium.
We went to the final with a crew from Sky Sports News and we never set foot in the ground. We were pepper sprayed and tear gassed for trying to do our jobs.
Despite the mayhem and the chaos, French police arrested only 81 people at the game. If Liverpool fans were really to blame why were only 14 of them from the UK?
Liverpool fans arrived at the ground early because a train strike meant travel options by public transport to the Stade de France were limited on the day. Fans could only use Line D to Saint-Denis as Line B was closed because of strike action.
Once they arrived at Saint-Denis they should have been directed along two routes to the stadium, but because of the lack of information and signs, most Liverpool fans ended up using just one route. It was actually incredible to be at such a big game and see virtually no signage. We had been to the stadium before many times and found it disconcerting and confusing, so we could only imagine what it felt like for people who were going there for the first time.
Things got steadily worse the closer you got to the ground. A totally inadequate ticket checkpoint close to the stadium caused a massive bottle-neck which lasted for hours. Stewards were checking tickets and many were coming up as forgeries when they were real.
As kick-off got closer, the checkpoint was abandoned and a crush developed at the turnstiles as fans were trapped on the concourse. Many of the turnstiles were not working properly and the situation was made worse by locals climbing fences to get into the game.
By now the incredible decision was made to deploy riot police. They began to use pepper spray and tear gas indiscriminately.
Inside the ground, thanks to social media, people already knew something was seriously wrong and, did not believe UEFA's now notorious message on the big screens which blamed fans for the kick-off being delayed: "Due to the late arrival of fans at the stadium, the match has been delayed."
This message was seen by hundreds of millions of TV viewers around the world and gave the wholly incorrect impression that fans were causing the problems.
The truth is that the real blame lies with UEFA, the French authorities and the French police. Their incompetence and negligence could have led to a far more serious situation had it not been for the restraint of the Liverpool supporters who know all about the history of what happened at Hillsborough in 1989.
Although the French police were out in force before the game, they were nowhere to be seen when supporters were being mugged and attacked as they were leaving the game.
After the game, the French interior minister Gerald Darmanin made the ludicrous claim that up to 40,000 Liverpool fans had turned up at the stadium without tickets or with fake tickets. The real number of counterfeit Liverpool tickets turned out to be 1,600 - which is no more than usually expected for a game of this size.
It is now obvious that three months was not enough time to organise a game of this size. The Stade de France should not be used for another final for a long time and UEFA should ensure that all fans who suffered on that night receive full refunds for their tickets.
And they should apologise and thank Liverpool supporters for the way they behaved.
