According to The Guardian, UEFA’s message accusing supporters of having caused the postponement of the kick-off of the Champions League final on May 28 at the Stade de France was written well before the match.
UEFA had anticipated possible hitches on the sidelines of the Champions League final, well before the match between Liverpool and Real Madrid (0-1) on May 28. And the body obviously had the culprits all found: Liverpool supporters. According to The Guardian, the statement by the European confederation blaming Liverpool fans for delaying the start of the Champions League final in Paris had been prepared long before the day of the match. The press release, broadcast on the big screen at the Stade de France, announced that a postponement of the kick-off scheduled for 9 p.m. had been caused by “the late arrival of the supporters”.
The statement blaming the late arrival of the fans was decided during the planning stages of the match
The message infuriated Reds fans, thousands of whom were still stuck in chaotic queues outside the stadium despite arriving there several hours in advance. Around 15,000 Liverpool fans were held up in a bottleneck at a ticket checkpoint between exiting public transport and arriving at the stadium. Several of them were then refused access to the stadium at the turnstiles closed by the stewards and the police.
According to the British daily, the statement blaming the late arrival of the supporters was decided during the planning stages of the match, as the one likely to be used in the event of a kick-off having to be delayed. At the end of the game, UEFA issued a second statement, blaming “thousands of fans” at Liverpool with “fake tickets” for the kick-off delay.
After the fiasco of the organization, the prefect of police but also the Minister of the Interior, Gérard Darmanin, had also blamed the English fans, arousing indignation. A senatorial investigation then pointed to the many dysfunctions of the security forces. In addition to the chaos generated by the mismanagement of the maintenance of order, numerous violence and thefts had also been committed against English and Spanish supporters.
According to Le Parisien, 245 complaints have been filed since the final. A cell of 12 investigators has just completed the study of numerous video surveillance and would have been stunned by the number of attacks and their degree of violence for some. “Apart from being drunk, the English remained correct, explains a policeman present on the spot to the Parisian. We immediately understood that evening that the problem would not come from the supporters but from people from home who had come to make money.”
