“As long as we are stuck on this theory of 30,000 to 40,000 supporters that the Ministry of the Interior cannot prove, I find it difficult to understand how we can move forward”said Ronan Evain, general manager of the Football Supporters Europe association, Wednesday June 1 on franceinfo. He attended the incidents on Saturday May 28 at the Stade de France as an observer of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. “We have a beginning of mea culpa but we have to go much further”he believes that Gérald Darmanin admitted errors before the Senate Law Commission on Wednesday. “The Minister of the Interior must explain to us what happened”he explains.
franceinfo: Did you hear the explanations you expected?
Ronan Evain: No, we have a beginning of mea culpa and recognition of some of the organizational problems of Saturday but it is not yet in recognition of the magnitude of the fiasco. These are half-word excuses. We will have to go much further. As long as we are stuck on this theory of 30,000 to 40,000 supporters which, obviously, the Ministry of the Interior cannot prove, I find it difficult to understand how we can move forward.
For the moment, things are settled behind closed doors with the organizers. You have to open doors and windows. The Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Sports must bring everyone around the table and tell us what information they have and above all that they explain to us what happened.
Gérald Darmanin admits to having anticipated the arrival of hooligans, who did not arrive, to the detriment of a device for the fight against delinquency and supervision of supporters. Could the mistakes have been made before the match?
Hooliganism in Liverpool simply does not exist anymore. The police system that we saw on Saturday evening, and in particular this idea of making the most impressive show of force possible, was based on what some of the Liverpool supporters were like in the 1980s. We are 35 to 40 years old delay ! Liverpool’s Champions League finals in kyiv and then Madrid in 2018 and 2019 went well. This is what should have been taken into account, not fantasies based on phenomena that no longer exist.
“We confused the fact of welcoming public at risk with that of welcoming a lot of people.”
Ronan Evain, Football Supporters Europeat franceinfo
In addition, we heard again today the Minister of Sports complaining that Liverpool supporters were in the wild, not sufficiently supervised and in Paris without a ticket. But if we organize a Champions League final, it is also to support the hotel sector, bars and restaurants. I don’t see why it’s being presented today as an impossible public safety issue.
Is it a positive development that Gérald Darmanin is now considering new rules for the supervision of major sporting events?
Yes of course. We cannot continue to make the same mistakes with the same archaic processes that were used 20 or 25 years ago. Society is changing, stadiums are changing, fan expectations are changing and we cannot continue to treat them like cattle. We need a complete overhaul of the process for welcoming supporters, whether for major sporting events or French championship matches.
The problems of managing supporters in France, and in particular travel bans, have led to a loss of capacity for the French police in the management of large groups. This is also what happened on Saturday at the Stade de France. Things had worked pretty well from 2017 to 2019. Today, the communication channels between supporters and the Ministry of the Interior or Sports no longer exist. The national supporters body, for example, has been completely deserted by the two ministries. It also explains some preparation errors.