French government minister also falsely claimed fans were at fault for police brutality and endangerment
An inquiry by the French Senate into horrific scenes at the Champions League final in May has put the blame for the violence and abuse firmly on the French authorities and not on Liverpool supporters, as the French government originally tried to claim.
The French government initially blamed supporters and fake tickets for the crowd chaos that led to fans being tear-gassed and robbed in Paris.
The report on two Senate committees’ investigations concludes that fans were unfairly blamed and says that ‘dysfunctional’ errors were made throughout the planning and execution of the match arrangements, going so far as to title the report a ‘fiasco’ and dismissing the authorities’ claims that the issues were caused by Liverpool fans turning up with fake tickets.
Fans were tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed outside the ground, with some denied entry to the match despite holding valid tickets after turnstile machines failed to operate properly. The report also blames a police attempt to ‘pre-filter’ fans as they arrived at the rail station, a system that was completely impractical for the numbers of fans arriving, causing bottlenecks and crushes. Damningly, the authorities deleted CCTV footage of the violence a week after the game.
The chair of one of the inquiries condemned the lack of coordination and communication among different bodies involved in the planning, as well as the attempts to scapegoat supporters for the abject failures of the organisers and police.
In his testimony to the inquiries, French minister Gerald Darmanin still tried to blame supporters even though he was forced to admit to numerous failures of organisation. The government had originally claimed that 30-40,000 Liverpool fans had arrived without genuine tickets – a smear now confirmed to be a complete fabrication.
SKWAWKBOX needs your help. The site is provided free of charge but depends on the support of its readers to be viable. If you’d like to help it keep revealing the news as it is and not what the Establishment wants you to hear – and can afford to without hardship – please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal or here to set up a monthly donation via GoCardless (SKWAWKBOX will contact you to confirm the GoCardless amount). Thanks for your solidarity so SKWAWKBOX can keep doing its job.
If you wish to republish this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
Oh well… It only took them 10 weeks or so.
Taken THIRTY-THREE PLUS YEARS, for something partly resembling the truth to come out here.
Yes Toffee – but still no justice for the victims and their families
Indeed Toffee. The wagons are circling again, as the French government and police start blaming Liverpool supporters in a manner reminiscent of 32 years ago.
Liverpool FC fans have been exonerated for the chaos at the 2022 Champions League final by a French Senate report, which stated supporters were “unfairly blamed” by the Minister of the Interior and French police in order to “divert attention from the inability of the state” to safely stage the event.
Laurent Lefon, co-chair of the Senate Inquiry, blamed a “string of dysfunctions” at “every level” in a press conference afterwards. The location of ticket validity checks, which Liverpool supporters had criticised for creating the initial bottleneck that led to the trouble, was similarly criticised.
Paris will host the Olympics in 2024. Expect more of the same? Respect to the French upper chamber (Senate) and its courage at calling a spade a spade, it’s an act of integrity practically worthy of Jeremy Corbyn, former leader of Labour and banished MP.
At least Liverpool fans got the truth, that counts for something.