“Fiasco”, “night of chaos”… After a Champions League final marked by scenes of violence near the Stade de France in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), Saturday May 28, the controversy swells around the responsibilities of each other. The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, present in the evening at the stadium’s security headquarters alongside the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, quickly designated, on Twitter, “thousands of British ‘supporters’, without tickets or with counterfeit tickets”, who “forced entry and sometimes abused the stewards”. An argument taken up on Sunday, on BFMTV, by Loubna Atta, spokesperson for the police headquarters: “Many spectators were not ticket holders, or else fake tickets.”
Same story on the side of UEFA, which argues that “thousands of spectators” introduced themselves with “counterfeit notes that did not work”, creating “an accumulation of spectators” in the queues. But this version is disputed. Franceinfo explains why, on the eve of a ministerial meeting scheduled for Monday at 11 a.m. to “find out the malfunctions” that led to the incidents.
Because the problem of counterfeit banknotes is known
Director General of Football Supporters Europe (FSE), Ronan Evain denounces, on franceinfo, “the conclusions drawn by the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Sports”. “This story of counterfeit tickets, unfortunately, is part of the culture of supporterism in Liverpoolhe believes. If it’s a fake ticket, the person is kicked out and that’s the end of the story.” According to him, this is a problem “known”, “identified”, “generally treated well by the organizers of finals” and finally, “marginal”.
An argument taken up by Pierre Barthélemy, lawyer for several groups of French supporters, present in Saint-Denis as an observer for the Football Supporters Europe association. “There were fake tickets and fake accreditations, we saw some, but very marginally”he describes in The Parisian. Pierre Barthélemy describes the problem as “pretext”of“opportunistic argument”. Liverpool supporters “behaved very well” and “were able to keep their calm despite the interminable wait, the lack of information and the tear gas”, adds the lawyer. And he is not the only one to welcome their behavior.
Because the English were “exemplary”, according to Liverpool police
“The question was above all that of the people without tickets who found themselves around the Stade de France, who tried to enter in force, either by going over the turnstiles, or, for the more athletic among them , trying to get over the gates of the Stade de France. And there, for the most part, it was neither Liverpool supporters nor Real Madrid supporters, but rather young Parisians who came to try their luck around the Stade de France”Judge Ronan Evain.
For their part, Liverpool Police officers, deployed as observers and liaison officers during all European trips, found that “the vast majority” English supporters “behaved in an exemplary manner, arriving early at the turnstiles and queuing” as requested. “The only aggressiveness we saw came from the French police, we almost had the impression that they had come to fight”, testified a supporter interviewed by Sky Sports on his return. He also described intrusion attempts, but also assaults and thefts, committed by young French people seeking to take advantage of the crowd in front of the stadium.
The Paris police headquarters assures that the attempts of intrusion or use of counterfeit notes were “globally” the fact of “English supporters”, with “also probably some Parisians or Dionysians”. To shed light on what really happened, the British Secretary of State for Culture and Sport, Nadine Dorries, asked UEFA on Sunday for a “official investigation” on the causes of the incidents.
Because the organization around the Stade de France is often criticized
“There are lessons to be learned, not everything went in the best way”finally recognized, early Sunday evening, on franceinfo, the spokesperson for the Paris police headquarters. “In the meantime, the experience of the police headquarters in the management of major sporting events has already been proven. We hosted Euro 2016, and again recently the Coupe de France at the Stade France, and everything went well. “adds Loubna Atta.
This is not the opinion of Ronan Evain. “We have to ask ourselves whether France had the capacity to organize [cette finale] in view of repeated organizational difficulties around the Stade de France that we had already seen at Euro 2016, in certain Coupe de France finals. These are problems that are old, known, very important”, he laments. He points “an old problem of traffic, mobility, around the Stade de France, which was exacerbated” Saturday. “There is a very specific problem, which is that of the number of stewards available, their training, their professional quality, professional experience, which has arisen since the return to the stadium and the Covid-19 epidemic”adds the general manager of Football Supporters Europe.
For their part, the PS mayor of Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin, and the PS president of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis, Stéphane Troussel, demanded “a rapid and transparent commission of inquiry into the shortcomings which led to the excesses” of Saturday.