The French authorities deployed riot police in large numbers at the Champions League final in Paris apparently due to a misconceived association of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster with hooliganism, according to an official report produced for France’s prime minister.
The report by Michel Cadot, the French sports ministry’s delegate on major sporting events, appears to confirm many Liverpool supporters’ bleakest assumptions at the final, that the heavy-handed policing they suffered, including being teargassed, was informed by prejudice about their likely behaviour.
Cadot’s 30-page report, delivered on Friday to the office of the French prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, refers to Hillsborough in a section on police intelligence before the final on 28 May between Liverpool and Real Madrid. The section recognises first that Liverpool supporters have not been known for violence at matches. However, it then continues: “Reference to the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989 – 97 deaths – for which the responsibility of the [police] was pointed out, led however to the drawing up of a firm policing arrangement, to maintain order in riot gear, in order to be able to respond to a risk of collective phenomena of hooliganism and havoc, as had happened in Marseilles on 13 June 2016 during the England-Russia game.”
Bereaved Hillsborough families reacted with outrage and dismay to the report’s association of the disaster, at the 1989 FA Cup semi final, with hooliganism, and the revelation that despite all the changes in football during the 33 years since, it was apparently still informing police perceptions and behaviour.
After a 27-year campaign by bereaved families and survivors to legally establish the truth of how the disaster was caused, an inquest jury determined in 2016 that the 97 victims were unlawfully killed due to gross negligence manslaughter by the South Yorkshire police officer in command, Ch Supt David Duckenfield.
The jury also determined that there was no hooliganism, drunkenness, ticketlessness or any other alleged misbehaviour by Liverpool supporters that contributed to the disaster.
Louise Brookes, whose brother Andrew, 26, was one of the 97 people killed, said of the report: “This is a total, outrageous failure to understand the disaster. And this prejudice, that Liverpool supporters are hooligans, based on a complete misunderstanding of something that happened 33 years ago, nearly caused another disaster in Paris, to a new generation of Liverpool fans.”
Cadot’s report identified multiple failures in the management of the crowd at the Stade de France, where the kick-off was delayed for 36 minutes as thousands of supporters were held in static queues and many were teargassed by French police. However, his report maintains the allegation that very large numbers of Liverpool supporters with fake tickets were a substantial part of the problem. Borne is reported to have accepted Cadot’s recommendations for improvement and asked for them to be implemented without delay.
Steve Rotheram, mayor of Liverpool city region, who experienced the chaos in Paris, including being robbed, has described that allegation as a means of the French government deflecting blame and making scapegoats of supporters. Of the reference to Hillsborough, Rotheram said: “This is described as intelligence but it displays a lack of intelligence and confirms our worst fears. The appalling policing and crowd mismanagement in Paris was based on a falsehood, ignorance and prejudice. This again underlines the need for a full, thorough, independent investigation.”
Margaret Aspinall, the last chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, whose 18-year-old son James was one of the 97 people killed in the disaster, described the report as a disgrace.
“This confirms our worst suspicions that a completely false view of what happened at Hillsborough has informed a police force in another country. It shows the power of the lies that were told by the police in this country, that are still believed and repeated by far too many people. Football stadiums and policing were made much safer after the disaster, and all football supporters should understand that.”
The French sports ministry, which commissioned the report, and the interior ministry, which is responsible for policing, were contacted for comment.
A Uefa spokesman said the organisation could not comment on an official French government report. However a source insisted that Uefa staff are well aware of the truth about Hillsborough, and had no part in providing such references to the police as intelligence.
