Published on : 28/05/2022 – 21:45Modified : 29/05/2022 – 00:09
Security issues relating to supporters’ access to the Stade de France delayed the start of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid by at least thirty minutes on Saturday. Kick-off was postponed to 9:30 p.m.
Chaos and frustration. The start of the Liverpool-Real Madrid Champions League final, originally scheduled for 9 p.m., was delayed to 9.36 p.m. due to a security problem near the stadium.
UEFA blame counterfeit ticket problem
“As the kick-off approached, the turnstiles (to enter the Stade de France) on the side of the stands reserved for Liverpool were blocked by thousands of spectators who bought fake tickets which did not work”, UEFA explained in a press release. “This created a backlog of spectators trying to get into the stadium and as a result kick-off had to be delayed by 35 minutes to allow as many spectators with valid tickets to enter the stadium as possible,” the statement continues.
“As the number of people outside the stadium continued to increase after kick-off, the police had to use tear gas to disperse them,” explained UEFA, which specified that it would proceed “urgently” to an audit of what happened with the French police and authorities, as well as with the French Football Federation (FFF).
The 2022 Champions League final, won by Real Madrid 1-0 over Liverpool, was marked by scenes of chaos, with long queues, spectators shouting their anger and others trying to climb the gates surrounding the Stade de France. For its part, the Liverpool club has requested the opening of an investigation.
“We are extremely disappointed with the access issues and perimeter breaches suffered by Liverpool supporters,” the English club said in a statement. “This is the biggest game in European football and fans shouldn’t have to experience the kind of scene we witnessed tonight (Saturday). We have formally requested an investigation to determine the causes of these unacceptable issues. .”
A police source for his part told AFP that the French authorities had from the start alerted to the difficulty of managing several thousand supporters without tickets.
Faced with this situation, indicates this source, “we made an incentive communication” by calling spectators with tickets to come to the stadium from 6 p.m. to avoid crowd movements, and to avoid “that supporters with tickets stay outside. “.
“There were jostling, crowd movements, we provided answers in terms of security (…) We have reinforced security inside the stadium”, she underlines.
Another police source felt that it was “a bit easy” to criticize the police, while the latter pointed out from the start the difficulty of channeling so many supporters without a ticket.
A festive atmosphere followed by tension
Everything had however started in a festive and very good-natured atmosphere, under the bright sun of a springtime Paris: dressed in “Reds” jerseys or white Madrid tunics, tens of thousands of supporters swept quietly through the French capital, invited to join distinct “fan-zones”.
But less than half an hour from the start of the match, the atmosphere became tense when at least a thousand supporters were slowed down before being able to enter, contained by the gendarmes. Annoyed, they shouted “open the gate (“open the gate”), while the supporters could only pass one by one.
Then real intrusions undermined the system.
“The police are intervening to repel attempted intrusions into the stadium,” admitted the Paris police headquarters around 9:15 p.m. Tear gas began to be launched to prevent a few dozen young people from nimbly climbing the barriers, noted an AFP journalist.
“It’s very poorly organized”
Security guards and gendarmes set off in pursuit, to bring them out immediately. “It’s very badly organized,” said a security guard anonymously.
This game of cat and mouse continued even after the match started. And shortly before 10:00 p.m., the police had to charge, using tear gas, causing a crowd movement.
“These are people trying to enter the stadium and steal places,” a municipal policeman told AFP anonymously.
Enough to anger Liverpool supporters, who remained outside, although with tickets: “We were here two hours before the start of the match, we have no idea why we were blocked. I am seriously annoyed but we have kept our cool,” one of them told AFP anonymously, while another “fan” of Liverpool complained that “French people are trying to enter”.
The final originally scheduled for Saint Petersburg had been relocated to the Stade de France, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24. But the authorities only benefited from three months to prepare the event instead of eighteen, the period provided for in the specifications of UEFA.
With AFP
