The prefect of police of Paris, Didier Lallement, seized the public prosecutor for “massive fraud with counterfeit notes”, relying on article 40 of the code of criminal procedure. “I consider it necessary to identify those responsible for this massive fraud which could have had very serious consequences if the police services had not succeeded in stopping it.“, he specifies in a report sent to the office of the Minister of the Interior and which franceinfo was able to obtain this Sunday.
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Didier Lallement highlights the presence of 30 to 40,000 additional spectators around the Stade de France, without valid tickets. In addition to the 80,000 supporters with a ticket and expected within the sports enclosure. An influx which caused crowd movements at certain roadblocks, pushing the prefect to take the decision to lift certain controls to “avoid a tragedy“Among this crowd, the prefect of police notes the presence of 300 to 400 young people”from sensitive areas of Seine-Saint-Denis“.
As soon as the match was over, Gerald Darmanin – present at the Stade de France security headquarters – denounced, in a tweet, “Thousands of British ‘supporters’, without tickets or with counterfeit tickets, forced entry and sometimes assaulted stewards.”
With @AOC1978, at the Stade de France security headquarters. Thousands of British “supporters”, without tickets or with counterfeit tickets, forced entry and sometimes assaulted the stewards. Thank you to the very many police forces mobilized this evening in this difficult context. pic.twitter.com/gEXCqPhWmZ
— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) May 28, 2022
A scenario largely taken up by the various protagonists in the organization of this final: UEFA, which immediately called for an urgent audit, the French football federation and the Paris police headquarters. But the problem of counterfeit notes and intrusion attempts only partly explains the scenes of chaos seen around the stadium.
What many specialists in these major sporting events point out is the well-known problem of congestion at the south-west access points to the stadium, coupled with poor orientation of supporters towards this single screening point, due in particular to a glaring lack of sufficiently trained stewards.
The other criticism expressed by certain French politicians, but also by our British and European neighbors, is the systematic use of tear gas, indiscriminately, when children and the elderly were present. A French law enforcement doctrine that will undoubtedly have to evolve, 18 months from the Paris Olympics where hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected.
According to the prefect, the system put in place with 6,800 police and gendarmes worked, no incident having been noted in the two fan zones installed in Paris and St-Denis, welcoming respectively 6,000 and 44,000 Spanish and English supporters. The device “ensured the essentials: allowing the smooth running of the match, guaranteeing the safety of the festivities without deaths or serious injuries“, he concludes.