PARIS- French governmental authorities defended the city’s police after controversy arose from their treatment of Liverpool fans during the Champions League final, in which fans were blasted with tear gas.
Officials blamed incredibly high levels of ticket fraud, of up to 30-40,000 tickets, for the stampede at the stadium gates.
During a meeting this week covering the violence that took place on Saturday, sports and interior ministers blamed the team Liverpool fans, while not providing sufficient information as to how the fraudulent tickets were accumulated.
At the meeting, Interior minister Gerald Darmanin stated: “There was massive fraud at an industrial level and an organization of fake tickets because of the pre-filtering by the Stade de France and the French Football Federation, 70% of the tickets were fake tickets coming into the Stade de France.” However, fans who purchased legitimate tickets stated they struggled to enter the stadium as well.
“A massive presence of these fake tickets of course was the issue why there were delays, three times the beginning of the match was delayed.”
As a result of the commotion outside the game was started almost 40 minutes late. Pepper spray and tear gas became directed towards fans and children as a tactic of deterring the stampede.
Liverpool would lose the game 0-1.
“I’d like to thank the forces of law and order, also those who worked in the stadium because they were very calm and they were able to avoid drama and so thank you for organizing the pre-filtering but lifting it when there was too much pressure to avoid a drama,” Darmanin stated.
Sports minister Amelie Oueda-Castera blames Liverpool’s fans as well who were arriving at the stadium late for the crowd control problems. However, she did not say when they should’ve arrived specifically.
“We have seen, we have to improve in risky matches certain aspects with regard to managing the flows, first filtering, second filtering, and we have to make sure we look at electronic ticketing as closely as possible so we can avoid fraud as far as ticketing is concerned.”
“We are extremely sorry… for the people who had bought tickets and were unable to attend the match. That’s why we have asked UEFA to really work on a compensation system for those people — 2,700, including British people — so that they get compensation,” she said.
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