PARIS (AFP) - An enquiry by the French Senate into crowd chaos at this year’s Champions League final in Paris concluded that organizers were to blame, not supporters, undermining claims by the police and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.
A fact-finding mission led by two senators was set up after the Liverpool-Real Madrid game on May 28 which was marred by a delayed kick-off, crushes, teargas and street crime.
The investigation concluded that the problems were caused by a “string of dysfunctions” including a lack of preparation by French authorities and poorly executed security arrangements.
“These dysfunctions were at every level, not only during the implementation but also during preparations in advance,” the co-chair of the enquiry Laurent Lafon told reporters at a press conference.
The final report contradicted repeated statements from Darmanin that Liverpool fans were mostly responsible, with the minister claiming that up to 40,000 of them travelled to the stadium either with no tickets or with fake ones.
“The first statements (by the minister) do not match up with reality,” Francois-Noel Buffet, a fellow co-chair of the investigation, told reporters.
“The conclusions of the minister on the evening and the day after were not the right ones,” Lafon added. “It was a biased conclusion, imprecise.”
Many Liverpool supporters struggled to travel to the stadium because of a transport strike, then found themselves in bottlenecks and crushes at the stadium entry gates.
Faced with the build up of frustrated fans around the Stade de France, police fired tear gas to move the crowd back, affecting many children as well as disabled fans in wheelchairs.
After the game, visitors were preyed on by local gangs as they made their way to local transport connections, with many reporting pickpocketing, muggings and threats as the police looked on.
The televised events were a national embarrassment and are thought to have influenced parliamentary elections in June when President Emmanuel Macron lost his majority.