PARIS
In an about-turn, the French government said it was “sad and sorry” that 2,700 mostly Liverpool fans missed out on the final. France had initially blamed fans and counterfeiters for chaos at the stadium.
Gerald Darmanin, France’s minister of the interior, offered an apology on Tuesday to the many fans who were denied entry to the Stade de France during the Champions League final match held on May 28.
“I apologize very willingly for all those who have suffered this mismanagement,” said the minister in a live interview with French news outlet RTL. “Should the Stade de France have been better managed? The answer is yes. Do I have any part of the responsibility? The answer is yes.”
Chaos erupted at the final – held between rival teams Liverpool and Real Madrid – which took place at the stadium located just outside Paris – after many fans holding tickets were denied entry. Darmanin initially claimed afterwards that 70% of the tickets sold for the event were fake.
Huge crowds of fans – an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people – from the UK and Europe flooded the gates at the stadium but were denied entry, particularly at the first checkpoint. Police protection had been stepped up in advance, but when those who insisted their tickets were legitimate became unruly, disorder soon erupted with teargas and pepper spray employed to maintain calm.
In the days that followed, Darmanin was heavily criticized but continued to insist that almost three-quarters of the tickets sold were illegal, save for those purchased online (they failed to pose a problem). Darmanin also defended the actions of the police force at the stadium.
In his comments Tuesday, Darmanin, who is, officially, the head of the police throughout France, told RTL that in the month since, he has changed the police force “profoundly.”
“I changed the organization. I doubled the means that were missing, no doubt, to fight against delinquency because if there is something that went wrong at the Stade de France, it is the fight against delinquency,” Darmanin said.
The minister went on to defend Paris’ Prefect of Police Didier Lallement but went on to say, “it is certain we have a change of organization to make.”
“The president of the republic [Emmanuel Macron] and all his government are sad and sorry for these people who lost out,” Gregoire said after a cabinet meeting.
Fans leaving after the match, even later at night than expected given the delayed start, had also complained that the same police officers who had been liberally using tear gas before kick-off were suddenly nowhere to be found. Multiple reports of theft and violence, seemingly perpetrated by local gangs of youths in the Saint-Denis suburb targeting the visitors, poured in in the aftermath.
Macron urges ‘full transparency’
The apology comes after French authorities initially blamed fans and counterfeiters for trouble outside the Stade de France.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told reporters on Monday that police officers had “prevented deaths” at the game.
Darmanin claimed that fake tickets were a huge problem at the match, blaming Liverpool’s request for paper tickets over electronic ones for this. He said that this made it more difficult for officials to identify fake tickets.
He had also said that between 30,000 and 40,000 counterfeit tickets had been identified by authorities at the gates, a claim that many observers said seemed as improbable as it was unknowable. Liverpool was allocated considerably fewer valid tickets than this for the match for its fans, with most of the roughly 80,000 capacity crowd in the neutral and corporate section of the stands.
French media reported that Macron was angry with Darmanin for blaming Liverpool supporters.
When asked about this, Gregoire said, “What the president wants… is that light is shone on what really happened, in full transparency, and very quickly,” she said that Darmanin had Macron’s “full confidence” as interior minister.
One British fan arrested for violence
On Wednesday, Darmanin told the French Senate that one British fan was arrested for violence, among 14 British people arrested over the trouble at the match.
Liverpool said it has already collected more than 5,000 testimonies from supporters who traveled to France to attend the final.
“[We are] horrified by the way some men, women, children, able-bodied, less able-bodied, have been indiscriminately treated,” Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan said.
The crowded long queues at the stadium entry and the chaos generated was of particular significance to Liverpool supporters, given the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 when 97 supporters died as a result of a human crush during an FA cup semi-final. In that instance, British authorities and the press for years blamed the deaths squarely on Liverpool supporters and their alleged misbehavior.
Almost a quarter of a century later, a government-commissioned report absolved the fans of almost all blame and instead uncovered evidence of a cover-up among police, politicians and the press.
Some Liverpool figures, including former player Jason McAteer, who said his wife was mugged and his son beaten up for trying to defend her as they left the stadium, argued that it was only Liverpool fans’ memories of this tragedy that prevented the crowd trouble from getting truly out of hand at the weekend.
lo/msh (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)