can we say that “70% of the tickets presented for pre-filtering were fake”?

The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, advanced this figure on Monday during a press conference about the incidents which occurred on Saturday during the Champions League final at the Stade de France.

Article written by

Géraldine Hallot, from the investigation unit of Radio France – franceinfo

French Radio

Published

Reading time : 1 min.

Was there a fraud “massive and industrial” fake tickets for the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid on Saturday May 28 at the Stade de France? “There were between 30,000 and 40,000 people with forged tickets or without tickets” said the Minister of the Interior Monday, May 30 during the 20 hours of TF1.

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These counterfeit notes are “evil at the root” at the origin of the chaos, according to Gérald Darmanin during a press conference on Monday. The minister also put forward a figure: “70% of the tickets presented for pre-filtering were fake”. What doubt many observers present on the spot Saturday evening.

The exact number of counterfeit banknotes is impossible to know with precision. On the other hand, what is certain is that UEFA had allocated 20,000 tickets to Liverpool supporters for this final. Of these 20,000 seats, the vast majority, more than 14,000, were paper tickets. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine that there could have been three or four times more counterfeit banknotes.

According to Gérald Darmanin, 70% of the tickets that were presented to the stewards at the pre-filtering were therefore fake. But an observer from the Football supporters Europe association who stayed from 9 p.m. to 10:20 p.m. at Gate Y of the Stade de France, where the Liverpool supporters were entering, told us that he only saw about ten supporters. with false tickets or false accreditations, intercepted by the stewards and handed over to the police. The majority were French, not English, he says.

Liverpool supporters blocked in front of the gates of the Stade de France, May 28, 2022 in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) a few hours before the kick-off of the Champions League final against Real Madrid.  (THOMAS COEX / AFP)

Monday evening, from judicial sources, we were told “not knowing where Gérald Darmanin got these figures from“. The Bobigny prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation for “organized gang fraud” following the report made by the police headquarters.


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