A Liverpool FC supporter described the appalling responses of French police and UEFA officials as Reds fans faced horrific danger at the Champions League final in Paris last year.
A damning report has found UEFA to be 'primarily responsible' for the chaos that unfolded outside the Stade de France on May 28 last year, where thousands of Liverpool fans were forced into dangerous crushes and attacked by police.
As part of the investigation leading to the report - which praises and vindicates all Reds fans who travelled to Paris - the panel spoke with supporters who were caught up in the terrifying scenes.
READ MORE: LFC fans protected each other as French police nowhere to be seen
One Reds fan, Tony Fitzgerald, told the panel of how bad things got and of the disturbing reactions from authority figures to the dangers unfolding outside the stadium.
Mr Fitzgerald said: "So, all I kept saying to my wife was – and she’s only 5 foot 2 – is keep on to the right. Don’t go left under any circumstances. And by this stage you could just feel the vibe where people like, we’ve been here before.
"This isn’t right, this is not getting better by the second. This could really end up badly. And you could hear voices going, “keep calm, keep it together.” And then you could hear kids crying. You could hear women sort of getting scared in it all. You’re trying to keep calm and yourself you’re thinking, “this isn’t right. This could end up back like Hillsborough again.”
When Mr Fitzgerald and his wife made it through the ticket points, they tried to highlight the dangers thousands still faced to police and UEFA officials and received disturbing responses.
He added: "We went through the ticket points. And as you went through the ticket points, I still didn’t show my ticket. They’d stopped checking by the looks of it, so we just went through so my wife went over to… there was a young French Gendarme there, and she said, “there are women and children really struggling in there. It’s getting bad now. Something serious could happen. Somebody could die.” And she actually went, “yes, I know", that was all she said."
"So, she then went over to a big UEFA chap who was standing there, and she said, “are you going to do anything about this?” And he just turned his back on her. That was it. So, I then went over to a Gendarme who was standing there, and I’ve got to be honest, I’ve lost it a bit at that point, and I used a bit of Anglo-Saxon on him.
"And he just stood there. I said “just do your job. There are people are going to die in there. You’ve got to do something.” And they just blanked you. That was it. They just blanked. They didn’t respond in any way, shape, or form. It was like, well, you’re on your own here."
Other fans have described the moments as fear and panic set in as they became crushed on the route towards the stadium that had been narrowed by police.
One told the panel: "At that entrance the police were using the same tactic of blocking off the entrance with riot vans with the riot police marshalling the small entrance gap left between the vans.
"I joined the mass of people waiting as this was the only means of access. As I got closer to the entrance gap, the squash was becoming more like a crush. A young man next to me was having a panic attack and a Spanish child on the other side was very scared. I was starting to breath a bit faster myself at this stage. By the time I got to the front I had no control over myself, with my arms pinned to the side of my body."
Speaking of their own experience in the run up to the match, another fan told the panel: "I will never forget the next traumatic 90 minutes. We were initially held back around the corner from the bar we had been at until we were released and allowed towards and into a subway, which passed under a busy main road.
"As we emerged, we were channelled between two police vans and into an area under an underpass which had been significantly narrowed by a long line of police vans. As the crowd built behind us and compressed in front of us, I was convinced that people would be crushed to death. It was clear that we were being funnelled into a significant pinch point. I could see that women and children were becoming very uncomfortable and there was no real way out.”
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