Martin Kallen, a UEFA official, was heard by French senators on Tuesday morning as part of the investigation into the incidents in the Champions League final on May 28.
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The numbers continue to speak. Gérald Darmanin affirms that there was “35,000 supporters” with counterfeit tickets or without tickets during the Champions League final at the end of May. In front of the French senators, Martin Kallen, managing director of UEFA Events, contradicted the Minister of the Interior, Tuesday, June 21. The leader of the European body rather mentions the figure of “2,600 tickets brought to the turnstiles which were fake” scanned.
Faced with the senatorial delegation responsible for shedding light on the events, Martin Kallen also specified that “many counterfeit tickets never arrived at the turnstiles (…) How many? We don’t know, we couldn’t really check. It is not believed that this was the figure mentioned after the first days in France, more or less 30,000 to 40,000″he asserted.
In the first hours after this stormy final between Real Madrid and Liverpool (1-0), Gérald Darmanin had judged the British supporters responsible for the incidents, speaking of a “massive fraud” on the ticket office and arousing the anger of supporters’ associations. Before the senators, on June 1, the Minister of the Interior then sketched a mea culpa on the organization of the final during his hearing, while maintaining his version on the number of counterfeit tickets.
Heard by the senators, Martin Kallen detailed the causes which, according to him, led to the chaotic scenes of May 28. “There are many: transport strikes, bad reactions from stewards, law enforcement, there have been criminals [dans le périmètre], an extremely large flow in front of the stadium without tickets or with counterfeit tickets“, he developed.
He made it clear that UEFA would take “some measures“which she would communicate later, pending the conclusions of the independent investigation she commissioned at the end of May.”We thought that the investigation would take at least two or three months.said the Swiss leader, according to whom the results should be communicated in September.