Four days after the chaos that disrupted Saturday's Stade de France Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, France’s interior and sports ministers will on Wednesday be made to explain themselves before the Senate.
Gérald Darmanin and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra have been widely criticised after they blamed Liverpool fans for ticket fraud, security breaches and the delayed kick-off to the match – and for their staunch defence of the French system.
Throngs of Liverpool supporters – including children – were sprayed with teargas and pepper spray after being made to queue for hours to enter the stadium.
While Darmanin said some 30,000 - 40,000 Liverpool fans had turned up at the stadium either without tickets or with fake tickets, sources within UEFA and the French football federation told AFP that only 2,800 fraudulent tickets were detected.
Oudéa-Castéra, meanwhile, admonished the English team for leaving its fans “out in the wild”, adding that “Real Madrid did a better job of supervising its fans”.
Liverpool FC hits back
Her comments drew a stinging rebuke from Liverpool FC, whose president, Tom Werner, swiftly wrote a letter admonishing the Sports Minister for being “irresponsible, unprofessional and totally disrespectful”.
The accusations have revived memories of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in which 97 people were killed in a stampede for which Liverpool fans were held responsible before poor policing decisions were finally recognised.
Oudéa-Castéra appeared to walk back her criticism on Tuesday, when she said Reds fans in possession of valid tickets to the game were “clearly owed an apology”.
- France opens criminal investigation into Champions League Paris stadium chaos
- UEFA blame ‘fake tickets’ for delayed CL final, Liverpool demand investigation
Coming in the run-up to this month’s legislative elections, the case has taken a political turn – shining a light on France’s ability to organise major sporting events a year out from the 2023 Rugby World Cup and two years before the Paris Olympics.
The ministers will be questioned for two hours by the Senate commissions for law and culture from 5pm – with the president of the Law Commission, François-Noël Buffet, telling FranceInfo that he expected to hear “speeches of truth”.
Buffet, a member of the right-wing opposition Republicans party that controls the Senate, said it was important to ensure that “lessons were drawn” from the incident so the world could be reassured of France’s ability to manage international events.
