Kick-off in the Champions League 2022 final was delayed with thousands of Liverpool fans stuck outside the Stade de France.
Video footage shot in the vicinity of the stadium in Paris showed supporters being held by police with reports suggesting there were serious issues with ticketing and organisation.
Inside the stadium the Liverpool end was noticeable patchy less than half an hour before the scheduled start, while the Real Madrid was relatively full.
The stadium announcer confirmed at 8.46pm local time – 14 minutes before kick-off – that the start of match had been delayed, with unconfirmed reports on BT Sport that police had used tear gas on Liverpool fans.
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Football presenter Gary Lineker described scenes of “absolute carnage” outside the stadium.
“Finding it impossible to get in the ground,” he tweeted. “This appears to be very dangerous. Absolute carnage.
“I’m not sure it’s possible to have a more poorly organised event if you tried. Absolutely shambolic and dangerous.”
A few ticketless fans were seen trying to gain access to the stadium, despite a permanent fence being in place around the perimeter, according to the Press Association.
According to French outlet RMC, police at gate U had been “overwhelmed for several minutes” by Liverpool fans without tickets.
‘A serious problem with policing and organisation’ – the view from the Stade de France
By Daniel Storey, i chief football writer
The coming days and weeks will provide full information, presumably coupled with an official inquiry. But it was clear even two hours before the match that thousands of supporters were being forced to congregate in bottlenecks and faced a lengthy queue to get into the stadium.
The initial message from Uefa, displayed on the big screens in the Stade de France, initially blamed “the late arrival of supporters” for the issue, briefly changed to “a security issue” before the original statement returned.
To diagnose the problem – and in doing so blaming supporters – strikes as a remarkably hasty move given what we knew and, more importantly, didn’t know. All anecdotal evidence suggests that there was a serious problem with policing and organisation.
In the stadium, the atmosphere shifted to a vaguely unpleasant impatience. You cannot blame supporters for being frustrated with a 30-minute delay, but as the tension mounted it became clear that the sooner the match was able to start safely, the better.
Football journalist Rob Draper tweeted: “When you get to stadium, Liverpool fans are being channelled away from their end to the Madrid end! And there is one tiny entrance for ticket holders.
“When I left there was whistling and it was tense. It was totally blocked. Now in the stadium, LFC end noticeably empty… And just to be clear these were fans arriving at 7pm, two hours before kick off.”
Another English journalist, Sam Wallace, described a “very unpleasant experience” outside the stadium.
He tweeted: “Chaos at the Stade de France on a big bottleneck on the ramp by gate U. Security guards overwhelmed and lots of fans shoved together.”
“Absolutely shambolic at the Stade de France,” said TV presenter Kelly Cates. “No way in, no way of knowing which way to go. Stay safe if you’re heading in. It has the potential to be very dangerous.”
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