French senate says Liverpool fans unfairly blamed for Champions League final chaos

Liverpool fans were unfairly blamed for the chaos which surrounded last season’s Champions League final in Paris to “divert attention” from the failure of the organisers, a French senate report has found.

The senate has heard from Liverpool supporters, French police and government officials and Uefa’s events director, Martin Kallen, since the match on 28th May, which kicked off more than half an hour late.

France’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, initially said ticketless Liverpool supporters were to blame for the buildup of crowds at the perimeter of the Stade de France, with police using teargas on fans as they waited to gain entry.

The provisional report of the findings, published on Wednesday, stated: “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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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.

“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 said.

“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.”

The senate report said the French authorities must learn lessons from the “serious collective failure” and apply them to the hosting of next year’s Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games.

The report described Uefa’s management of the ticketing system as “unsuitable” and criticised a lack of training for stewards, who it said were quickly overwhelmed. Uefa had failed to put in place a system in advance to detect the extent of forgeries, the senate found.

The report said the French football federation (FFF) had identified 2,471 counterfeit tickets, 1,644 in the southern sector of the stadium dedicated to Liverpool supporters.

It also said the decision to run a first check on ticket validity at pre-screening security points had led to checkpoints becoming blocked.

The Senate recommended the introduction of tamper-proof ticketing for such major events, and improved co-ordination between stewards and police.

Policing was influenced by a “dated vision” of British fans, the report said, as officers prepared for an influx of hooligans, rather than a plan built around the enjoyment of supporters and their ease of access to the venue. “Welcoming supporters in a festive setting had been neglected,” it stated.