The incidents of the Champions League final on May 28 at the Stade de France are not linked to the presence of Liverpool supporters “around the stadium”, estimated the French senators, pointing to the “failures” of the authorities in the conclusions of their report.
” Just because there were Liverpool supporters accompanying their team doesn’t mean it went badly “, assured Laurent Lafon, the president of the culture committee of the French Senate, during a press briefing. Laurent Lafon and the president of the law commission François-Noël Buffet (Les Républicains, right), who presented the conclusions of the report, conversely pointed to the ” failures » authorities during this fiascoattributable, according to them, to the Paris police headquarters, while denouncing a bad “ to analyse by Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who had quickly incriminated the English supporters of Liverpool before presenting his apologies belatedly, had affirmed during his hearing before the senators that nearly ” 35,000 Supporters with counterfeit tickets or without tickets showed up at the Stade de France that evening. And a few days earlier, he had called ” evil root This massive presence, according to him, of counterfeit notes.
The chairman of the Culture Committee felt that this ” partial and imprecise analysis of the Minister of the Interior after the incidents, placing the responsibility on the presence of counterfeit banknotes, ” was not the right one “. ” This failure is due to the decisions taken by the Paris police headquarters “, underlined François-Noël Buffet (LR), during this press briefing.
A lack of coordination and preparation
Laurent Lafon also mentioned ” a chain of failures » and « failures ” as well ” in execution » than in the « preparation ” of the event. ” Everyone was in their lane without any real coordination “, also noted the senator.
The event between Real Madrid and Liverpool, which was to be a showcase just over a year from the Rugby World Cup and before the Summer Olympics in two years, turned into a nightmare for the forces of the order and the government: with spectators without tickets climbing the gates of the stadium, others with tickets but unable to enter, families sprayed with tear gas by the police or robberies and attacks committed by opportunistic criminals .
The Senate report recommends about fifteen measures, including that of ” impose on operators “to keep CCTV images” for the legal period of one month » or even « make the use of tamper-proof banknotes mandatory “.
For Laurent Lafon, if ” the management of the ticket office was unsuitable “, she ” can in no way be considered as the sole cause or as the cause of the incidents “.
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(With AFP)