The organizers of the Champions League final, the police and local authorities will meet this Monday at 11:00 a.m. to “find out the malfunctions” and the fan access problems that took place on Saturday evening at the Stade de France, the Ministry of Sports and the Olympic Games announced on Sunday.
Supporters massed in front of the gates, freeloaders in shambles and muscular interventions by the police … Relocated at short notice to Saint-Denis, the Champions League final Liverpool-Real Madrid (0-1) offered scenes of chaos, suggesting malfunctions in the organization of the event. According to the European Football Union (UEFA), “thousands of spectators” showed up with “fake tickets that did not work”creating “an accumulation of spectators” in the queues. The kick-off was delayed by more than thirty minutes.
“With the Minister of the Interior, we deplore the incidents that marred the evening of the Champions League on Saturday evening at the Stade de France and regret that some supporters with tickets were unable to attend the match”said in a press release the new Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Amélie Oudéa-Castera.
“The priority now is to identify very precisely the dysfunctions with UEFA, the French Football Federation, the Stade de France, the Paris Police Headquarters, the Seine-Saint-Denis Prefecture and the town hall of Saint-Denis in order to to learn all the lessons to prevent such incidents from happening again for our future major international sporting events”continues the press release.