The French government this Monday traced the incidents that delayed Saturday’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool to a “massive, organized and industrial fraud” involving counterfeit tickets, noting that the fraud originated in England has. Paris claims that it was the arrival of tens of thousands of Liverpool fans at the Stade de France, with false tickets or no tickets, that sparked the chaos around the stadium and the scenes of violence that tarnished the image of France two years of the Olympics Games in Paris.
The London government and Liverpool fans – many of whom were tear-gassed by French police and feared it would all end in tragedy – are demanding explanations from UEFA and French authorities for the management’s malfunctions. “The images and statements from Liverpool fans and the media present at the entrance to the Stade de France are extremely worrying,” wrote Nadine Dorries, the UK’s Minister for Sport and Culture. “I urge UEFA to launch an investigation to find out what went wrong and why, in coordination with stadium staff, French Police, the French Football Association and Merseyside Police [encargada de la seguridad en Liverpool] and Liverpool FC.” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has deplored the organization’s failures and deplored the incidents and violence. At the same time, he congratulated the French security forces on their work and celebrated the fact that “the doctrine of maintaining French order has made it possible to avoid fatalities”.
Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin this Monday Jean-Francois Badias (AP)
“The massive presence of these counterfeit bills is the evil that is the cause of the delays in the start of the game,” Darmanin said at a press conference with fellow sportsman Amélie Oudéa-Castera. Both ministers appeared after a two-hour meeting with UEFA officials, at which the minister said there were “no differences of opinion on interpretation”. The French government claims that between 30,000 and 40,000 Liverpool fans turned up at the stadium on the day of the final without tickets or with fake paper tickets. There were also 22,000 English fans and 22,000 Real Madrid fans with legal tickets. The fraud, according to Darmanin, comes “from across the English Channel”. Namely from England.
Counterfeit bills, according to Darmanin’s account, were the first piece of the domino that knocked over those that followed. It caused crowds at the various ticket control barriers before reaching the stadium. The situation was aggravated by the strike on one of the suburban lines leading to the Saint-Denis stadium: all fans were concentrated on a single access road. Darmanin explained that it was decided to lift these controls in order to reduce the crowds at the controls in front of the stadium. But then dozens of young people from the neighborhood took the opportunity to sneak in and tried to jump over the fences of the stadium. The police used tear gas to disperse them. In the press conference, the French minister referred to the attacks on the fans by young people before and after the game. There were 77 detainees. “We had prepared a lot for hooliganism,” Darmanin said. “But we were less prepared for a crime that took advantage of the chaos at the previous controls.”
Images of Liverpool fans being pepper-sprayed by French police, children crying and dozens of people crushed against stadium fences have been constantly repeated by the British media. Outrage at the way security at the event was being managed has resulted in Boris Johnson’s Conservative government and the Labor opposition simultaneously demanding explanations from UEFA. British Minister Dorries said: “It is in everyone’s interest that we understand what happened and learn the necessary lessons from everything that happened.” The French government has asked the Saint-Denis prosecutor and UEFA to investigate the alleged ticket fraud. It has also pledged to improve crowd control systems ahead of future sporting events such as the 2024 games and the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Apart from the exaggerated and pharisaical headlines of some British tabloids, ever ready to foment discord against France, most Britons are aware of the less than exemplary behavior traditionally displayed by their hooligans. Last July, the Euro final at London’s Wembley Stadium ended with violent clashes between police and hundreds of fans who jumped the entry barriers to watch the final between England and Italy. In the 1980s, popular football fans declined significantly due to the unfortunate shows that took place every weekend.
However, on that occasion there was a quick consensus to blame Liverpool supporters. The scenes of chaos brought to mind for many Brits the Hillsborough tragedy of April 1989 and the avalanche of people at the entrance to that stadium that left nearly 100 dead. It also comes at a particularly sensitive moment between the UK and France, which have been in a state of perpetual tension since Brexit – over fisheries, border controls, irregular immigrants and even vaccines.
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