French government officials have reiterated claims that Liverpool fans with fake tickets caused the chaotic scenes that preceded the Champions League final in Paris, despite countless testimonies blaming a series of security and organisational failures.
France’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said there had been “fraud on an industrial scale” and that “70 per cent of tickets were fake coming into the stadium”.
The capacity of the ground is around 75,000 – so if that was full of “real” ticket-holders, with the alleged other 70 per cent fake, that would mean that around 175,000 counterfeit tickets were presented at the gates. There were only an estimated 50,000 Liverpool fans in Paris.
No evidence has so far been produced to suggest those figures are accurate and Mr Darmanin’s claims do not appear to tally with the estimates of Amelia Oudea-Castera, the French Sports Minister, who said there were 30-40,000 people without tickets or with fake tickets”.
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As criticism of the authorities’ handling of the match mounted on Monday, ministers admitted that around 2,700 fans with legitimate tickets had not gained access to the Stade de France. Uefa would be compensating those supporters, it was added.
So far, Parisian police have published a photo of one counterfeit ticket, but there has been no demonstration of the scale of the issue.
There have been other inconsistencies in the official record of events. As the chaotic scenes outside the ground worsened, Uefa initially delayed kick-off by 15 minutes and in an announcement inside the stadium attributed it to the late arrival of fans, despite thousands of supporters being crammed into dangerously tight spaces outside the ground in queues that had been forming from around 7pm local time, with more than two hours to go until the game started.
Uefa later released a statement claiming the turnstiles had been blocked by “fake tickets which did not work” – though some gates were closed with around an hour to go until kick-off and many of the supporters who were pepper-sprayed by police had not had their tickets checked, so at that stage it could not be ascertained if they were real or not.
The “ring of steel” – an additional security cordon which was in place at the Stade de France at Euro 2016 – was not used, adding to further bottlenecks before tickets were scanned. Pregnant women, children, and disabled fans were among those caught up in the chaos.
Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, compared the scenes – and indeed the attitudes towards Liverpool supporters which have emerged since – to the Hillsborough disaster in which 97 people lost their lives. In a letter to the Foreign Secretary, Mr Byrne said accusations being made against Liverpool fans were “utter nonsense”, adding: “I can honestly say that the situation outside the ground was one of the most horrendous experiences of my life – and as a Hillsborough survivor I do not make this comment lightly.”
Mr Byrne also referenced distressed relatives of Hillsborough victims who were present to witness the scenes as they unfolded.
Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara’s wife, Julia Vigas, also added weight to fans’ accounts, describing her experience as a “total nightmare” due to “a lack of organisation and security”.
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Mrs Vigas said she left the stadium for her own safety. Left-back Andy Robertson had also supported the fans’ version of events, saying an official ticket he had given to a friend through the club had been dismissed as fake.
Separately, i found some Liverpool supporters had been conned out of thousands of pounds by a scammer on Twitter. However, they did not travel to Paris and did not receive the tickets at all; there was no evidence found of any significant number of fake tickets being in circulation. The group’s Twitter account has since been deactivated and a mobile number which had been used for communicating with fans is no longer active. One fan, who declined to be named, said that among victims of the scam were parents of a child with autism, while another was suffering from cancer.
Fact-check – what happened at the Champions League final?
- Uefa first said the delays were caused by “late arrival of fans” – later, they said turnstiles had been blocked by “fake tickets which did not work”
- Several senior UK government officials have condemned the treatment of Liverpool fans, including a spokesperson for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, and Sports Minister Nigel Huddleston
- Merseyside Police, who were present to liaise with French authorities, have said behaviour from the vast majority of Liverpool fans was “exemplary”
- By 8pm, the Liverpool end was only around 25 per cent full – that is contrary to claims that thousands of supporters had gained access via fake tickets
- i‘s chief football writer Daniel Storey was at the Stade de France. He writes that “even two hours before the match, thousands of supporters were being forced to congregate in bottlenecks and faced a lengthy queue to get into the stadium”
- Other eyewitnesses saw fans pepper-sprayed before tickets were shown, as well as huge bottlenecks of supporters being contained in narrow walkways near the stadium
- French ministers did not produce evidence of the number of fake tickets, despite their claims that “70 per cent” of those trying to access the stadium had counterfeit tickets
- Liverpool have formally requested an inquiry
There has been one arrest of a 37-year-old man by Merseyside Police regarding the printing of fake tickets in Cheshire, though it is not believed that case is related.
Travis McNulty, another supporter who lost up to $7,000 on tickets he never received, together with flights and hotels, told i the experience had been “devastating”. He trusted a tout whom he had met in person previously and who had sent photos from multiple European away matches.
Merseyside Police, who had officers on the ground, said the behaviour of fans who did make the trip was largely “exemplary”.
It adds to the growing pressure on Uefa on the same day that Rangers released a statement condemning the governing body’s organisation of the Europa League final, when fans were left without water in soaring temperatures and there were further issues surrounding treatment of supporters by police and body searches.
“These issues could easily have led to even more severe problems on the night and it was only thanks to the calmness and mutual respect of both sets of fans towards each other that there were not more severe injuries suffered,” Rangers said.
Towards the end of the Champions League final, security personnel also organised a cordon at the Liverpool end of the stadium despite there being no signs of trouble, with Real Madrid leading 1-0. That was interpreted by some as another indication of prejudice against Liverpool fans.
While the French Interior Minister did express “regret that there was disorganisation with regard to welcoming the British supporters as opposed to the Spanish supporters”, government officials have stood by their account, while Uefa have issued no further update since Saturday night.
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