Football: France has ‘learnt lessons’ from Champions League final chaos - minister
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Liverpool fans stand outside unable to get in in time on May 28, 2022.
PHOTO: AFP
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COURCHEVEL, France – France has learnt “lessons” from the chaotic scenes around 2022’s Champions League final in Paris for which Uefa has said it bears primary responsibility, Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said on Sunday.
Real Madrid’s 1-0 victory over Liverpool at the Stade de France on May 28 was overshadowed by a 37-minute delay to kick-off as fans struggled to access the stadium
The images were not the ones France wished to be beamed round the world with them due to host the Sept 8-Oct 28 Rugby World Cup and the Olympics and Paralympics in 2024. The Stade de France will be one of the venues for both sporting showpieces.
“We’ve shown that we are working to learn absolutely all the lessons from that,” Oudea-Castera said on the sidelines of the World Ski Championships in Courchevel.
Lessons to be learnt involved “crowd flow management, the deployment of security forces, the mobilisation of private security companies and crime prevention plans”, she added.
The initial reaction of European football chiefs was to blame Reds fans for the disorder, but the sheer volume of social media testimony by supporters and independent journalists meant this position unravelled quickly.
An independent report, commissioned by Uefa and released on Monday, found the European governing body bore “primary responsibility” for failings in planning, security and policing.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said on Wednesday: “Everybody knew how our fans behaved... but it feels just right that it’s now official... because there were so many things said after the game, which we knew were wrong.”
French police and authorities were also criticised for a heavy-handed response to fans, based on incorrect assumptions that they posed a threat to public order.
Uefa had initially tried to pin the blame on Liverpool fans arriving late despite thousands having been held for hours outside the stadium before kick-off.
The French authorities then claimed an “industrial scale fraud” of fake tickets was the problem. But a French Senate inquiry in July found that poorly executed security arrangements were the cause of the mayhem.
Images of the final tarnished France’s reputation for holding major sports events.
“We are very hard at work with (Interior Minister) Gerald Darmanin on all these issues, for the Rugby World Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Oudea-Castera said. “We have learnt all the lessons.” AFP
