“At the Stade de France security headquarters”Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Sports and Olympics Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra are pictured on Saturday evening of the Champions League final – and this one is published on Twitter by the first. Eyes glued to the security screens, they see that “thousands of British ‘supporters’, without tickets or with counterfeit tickets forced entry”. A version similar to that of UEFAaccording to whom they are “thousands” of «faux tickets» who blocked the entrances to the stadium. At the end of the evening, the police headquarters affirmed that “The intervention of the security forces made it possible to prevent the majority of these intrusion attempts, and to avoid a serious disturbance of the system.” Due to these incidents, the start of the match between Real Madrid and Liverpool (1-0) had to be postponed by half an hour, a rarity for a match of this level.
The image of the two ministers at the stadium responds above all to those, plethoric, of the incidents which take place outside the sports enclosure of Seine-Saint-Denis. Many supporters, including Liverpool, according to available footage, are barred from entering as law enforcement responds. People run to escape the copsothers to enter the Stadium after climbing the high closed gates. “I’m not sure that it was possible to organize this event less well, even trying”tackled the English football star Gary Lineker on Twitter.
“Huge joke”
«It’s a huge joke that this police,” annoys the English-speaking journalist Jam Williams-Thomas, who takes photo eyes reddened by tear gas, specifying that he is nevertheless “accredited”. Near Freedhe says he saw Liverpool fans “who behaved well” whereas “ticket control was really bad”, because carried out by too few people, according to him. Jam Williams-Thomas is not at the very place where the first tear gas is used – he is told by supporters – but then he observes that the stewards and the police are closing the gates around the stadium, pushing “local” (“I say that because they spoke French”) to climb them. Before partially reopening them “around 9:10 p.m.”. At the same time, he states that he saw the police “use tear gas spray on supporters, through the grids, for no reason.”
Two of his colleagues from the Associated Press (AP) reported difficulties in working, and in particular in filming the scenes of tension around the stadium, because security personnel prevented them from doing so. Contacted by Freedthese two journalists have not yet answered our questions.
I got bundled into a hut by a security guard, told to remove accreditation, and then forced to delete video footage of the crowd issues otherwise I wouldn’t be allowed back inhttps://t.co/N0d01VI1LL
– Steve Douglas (@ sdouglas80) May 28, 2022
Truncheon blows
The other hot spot of the evening was in eastern Paris, on the Cours de Vincennes, where the fan zone was set up, supposed to be able to accommodate 44,000 Liverpool fans. Before and during the match, Release was able to observe on the spot that the atmosphere was rather good, although particularly watered. However, on the nearby Place de la Nation, the police “helped a manager” to close his bar, because he was encountering “difficulties with supporters on his terrace”, according to a police source. Which is reminiscent of the scene filmed by the journalist Remy Buisine, where we see the police distributing truncheons in the middle of tables, chairs and parasols. At the end of the match, the Place de la Nation became a battlefield, where projectiles and tear gas were flying. Release witnessed several charges led by the police (some of which were filmed by journalist Clément Lanot) and arrests.
This Sunday morning, the Ministry of the Interior reported, between the fanzones and the Stade de France, 105 arrests and 39 people placed in police custody. The police headquarters also counted Saturday evening “238 interventions by firefighters for people injured very slightly”.