Sports
A French inquiry into the security fiasco at the Uefa Champions League final in May has found it was caused by a litany of administrative errors and failings rather than Liverpool fans.
The French government initially blamed supporters and fake tickets for the crowd chaos that led to fans being tear-gassed and robbed in Paris.
But a Senate report has found authorities blamed them unfairly.
Dysfunctional mistakes were made at every level, it said.
In their report, entitled Champions League Final: An Unavoidable Fiasco, two Senate committees investigated what went wrong on the night of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Paris on 28 May, taking evidence from Liverpool fan and club representatives as well as French officials.
Liverpool fans have told the BBC that the problems were caused by digital tickets not working properly on the night, leading to problems at the turnstiles at the Stade de France. A rail strike made things worse, leading to bottlenecks as supporters arrived for the match.
As well as being tear-gassed outside the ground, fans were robbed and assaulted by local troublemakers. It then emerged that CCTV footage had been wiped a week later because no request had been made to save it.
Laurent Lafon, one of the inquiry’s two chairmen, spoke of a dysfunctional chain of events and failings in preparation: “Everyone went their own way without there being any real co-ordination.”
Paris police, Uefa and the French government are all taken to task by the inquiry: Uefa for failing to plan for potential ticketing fraud and the government for shifting the blame on to supporters.
Co-chairman Jean-Noël Buffet identified the police’s decision to use its anti-terror policy of pre-screening fans outside a rail station as part of the problem: “It just required 10,000 to 15,000 people to make this pre-filtering system untenable.”
When the Paris prefect decided to abandon the screening because of the risk of a crush, the inquiry said the move had “created a space in front of the stadium for hooligans, who were then able to surge into it and attack supporters”.
BBC SPORT.
A.I
Tags: Liverpool fans Real Madrid UEFA Champions League
