Determine the responsibilities of the security fiasco of the Champions League final at the Stade de France and propose remedies to avoid such chaos during the 2024 Olympics: this is the purpose of the report issued this Wednesday by the Senate on this evening which flayed the image of France throughout the world. In its report delivered this Wednesday, the Senate indicates, through the voice of Laurent Lafon, that it is “a series of malfunctions which occurred in a rather vague context, without anyone feeling responsible. These dysfunctions took place at all levels”.
“The management of the ticket office was not adapted. If the fake ticket office participated in disrupting the event, it cannot be the main cause,” he added. “Our first proposal is to make tamper-proof and electronic tickets mandatory. We require organizers to notify ticket holders of entry requirements. We are also asking for better training for stewards,” continued Laurent Lafon.
“The system put in place was overwhelmed at the pre-filtering level”
The incidents are not related to the presence of Liverpool supporters “around the stadium”. The Senate recommends “a supporter mobility plan”, “real-time communication of supporter flows” as well as an improvement in “the attractiveness of the surroundings of the Stade de France” so that supporters arrive earlier and leave earlier later, in order to avoid too much flow. “We are also asking for the restoration of the number of public officials dedicated to traffic around the stadium”, concludes Laurent Lafon.
For his part, François-Noël Buffet noted that “the safety of the supporters had not been ensured sufficiently”. “The presence of worries was foreseeable, it is unacceptable. The numbers assigned to the fight against delinquency were undersized. The system put in place was overwhelmed at the level of pre-filtering. This failure is therefore due to the decisions taken by the police headquarters, ”added François-Noël Buffet.
Spectators without tickets climbing the gates of the stadium, others with tickets but unable to enter, families sprayed with tear gas by the police or thefts and attacks committed by opportunistic criminals: the organization of the meeting was a “fiasco” , had already denounced the senators. “All lessons must be learned for the organization of the next international sporting events”, had warned the elected officials, led by the presidents of the Law Commission, François-Noël Buffet (LR), and of the Culture Commission, Laurent Lafon (centrist).
“Contradictions between the different people heard”
“The various hearings have highlighted contradictions between the different people heard,” said Senator LR Michel Savin, president of the study group devoted to major sporting events, who had requested a commission of inquiry.
“We also saw malfunctions in communication, in information,” he added, assuring that the work of the Senate had “made it possible to measure all the points that have malfunctioned and that must be corrected to be in ability to project a much better image.
VIDEO. “Indescribable chaos”: Liverpool supporters recount their evening at the Stade de France
Among the people interviewed by the senators since June 1: officials of sports bodies, representatives of Liverpool supporters and the French authorities, including the controversial Paris police chief Didier Lallement, announced on the departure, and the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The latter has been at the heart of criticism by placing most of the responsibility for the incidents on “30,000 to 40,000 England supporters” who, he claimed against most observers on the spot, had turned up at the stadium “without ticket or with falsified tickets”. Gérald Darmanin’s explanations were also undermined by UEFA, which only counted 2,600 counterfeit tickets at the turnstiles.
Beyond the police management of incidents, the controversy has also been fueled by the non-conservation of part of the CCTV images of the Stade de France, described as “serious misconduct” by Senator Buffet.