Their work is not intended to instruct a lawsuit, nor does it constitute a “formal legal process”. But the authors of the independent investigation report commissioned by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), including The world took note – a 151-page document, without annexes – and devoted to the organization of the calamitous final of the Champions League, on May 28, 2022, at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis ), between FC Liverpool and Real Madrid, nevertheless draw up an implacable indictment against the negligence of the public authorities in terms of security.
The investigation, conducted for eight months among the protagonists of the event by a “panel” of lawyers, academics and representatives of supporters’ associations, demonstrates the responsibility of the French authorities in the endangerment of thousands of British supporters and Spaniards, almost all peaceful, threatened with crushing on several occasions, attacked by gangs of delinquents, sprayed with gas by the forces of order. Overwhelming observation: better organized and more responsive than the police and gendarmes responsible for ensuring their safety, these « fans » of Liverpool or Madrid owed their salvation only to an unfailing solidarity and an ability to discipline themselves which command admiration in a context so resolutely hostile to them.
At the origin of this fiasco, terror, inspired by a « menace hooligan » fantasy, erected as the number one risk of the meeting, served as a matrix for a series of errors of assessment around an obsession: to avoid the scenario of June 13, 2016 in Marseille, when a Euro match between England and Russia had resulted in clashes between hooligans from both countries. Focused on this danger, the public authorities will ignore the observation made in 2015 by a Council of Europe delegation in France and widely shared since: the violence systematically committed by gangs of delinquents against foreign supporters – a specialty French which is not the prerogative of Seine-Saint-Denis.
The problem of “exaggerated” counterfeit banknotes
From March 25, 2022, a tripartite meeting between the French Football Federation, the Consortium Stade de France (CSDF) and the prefecture of Saint-Denis therefore points to the « risque » posed by the qualification of a British club. “Thousands of English supporters could join Paris for the occasion, is alarmed the minutes of the meeting. Most of these spectators would not have a ticket to attend the final. » The National Hooliganism Division (DNLH), which estimates that there are between 50,000 and 70,000 Liverpool fans without tickets, may point out that such a phenomenon is not unusual and does not in itself involve no particular risk, the security officials, headed by the police headquarters, do not budge: a supporter deprived of a ticket can only be a spoilsport.
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