The French authorities blamed this Monday, for the chaos in access to the Champions League final, on the disorganization that allowed tens of thousands of Liverpool fans without a ticket to travel to Paris and the “massive fraud” of the falsified tickets.
“We are sorry for the disorganization caused by 30, and 40,000 British fans without tickets or with falsified tickets they arrived at the Stade de France”, affirmed Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior.
In addition, “a massive fraud, on an industrial scale, of falsified tickets was verified”, added Darmanin, in an appearance before the press after a meeting of more than two hours with the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra.
The head of the Interior recalled that the tickets were electronic; but, at the request of UEFA, printed tickets were admitted, which opened the possibility of fraud.
He explained that, in the area of prior filtering of Liverpool fans, “more than 70% of the entries were false”. This ended up generating problems in the security system, to the point that the intervention of the riot police was necessary.
Likewise, he regrets that fans, including families with children, suffered the consequences of tear gas . He acknowledged that he has seen videos of French police officers using gases “unnecessarily and disproportionately.”
Darmanin recalled that in the Champions League final of 2019 in Madrid “the same problem” occurred for tens of thousands of British fans who traveled without incident.
Something else of 2,700 fans could not finally access the stadium despite having a ticket, reported Oudéa-Castéra. In this sense, without giving further details, he announced that there will be compensation for those affected.
The two ministers highlighted that these incidents occurred in the access areas for English fans. “There has been no problem on the Spanish side,” said Darmanin.
“The disorganization of the arrival of the British fans by their club complicated it”, reiterated the head of the interior, who also partially blamed the strike; just that day, on the suburban train line that leads to the stadium, and which also connects the two Paris airports.
Another issue is that of the many criminal groups that launched organized to try to rob the fans of both teams. The authorities arrested 77 people for these events in the town of Saint-Denis, on the outskirts of Paris, where the stadium is located.
You can also read: