UEFA, organizer of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, bears “primary responsibility” for the serious incidents “which almost led to disaster” last May at the Stade de France, concludes a report on Monday. a group of experts following an independent investigation commissioned by the European body.
“The group has concluded that UEFA, as the owner of the event, bears the primary responsibility for the failures which almost led to disaster”, can we read in this long document of 151 pages, which also pinpoints the prefecture police and the French Football Federation (FFF).
“Even if it were reasonable to delegate security issues to others, primarily the FFF and to refer to the police headquarters for law enforcement issues, it does not follow that the UEFA is absolved of its responsibility. UEFA played a central role in the organization of the event and they should have monitored, supervised and contributed to the security measures,” argue the experts.
“The other stakeholders committed shortcomings which contributed (to the incidents) but UEFA was in control” during this Liverpool-Real Madrid final, they insist.
The use of tear gas criticized
Endless waiting, supporters and families sprayed with tear gas or victims of robbery… The law enforcement system during this Champions League final in Saint-Denis had given rise to scenes of chaos, provoking a lively controversy in France and England. The report also points to the poor reaction of the French security forces, arguing that the police’s use of tear gas and pepper spray had “no place in a football party”.
Experts in the report, led by Portugal’s former education, youth and sports minister, Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, said they were “flabbergasted” that the match’s policing pattern could have been influenced by the image of Liverpool supporters assimilated to hooligans, an “inexplicable misconception”. “The security approach was based, inappropriately, on the assumption that Liverpool supporters could pose a significant threat to public order,” they further note.
The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had initially incriminated the British supporters with the many falsified tickets according to him, before the prefect Didier Lallement admitted to having “perhaps been mistaken” on their number, recognizing a “failure”. A government report had pointed to police and organizational dysfunctions, at the end of an episode that tarnished the image of France two years from the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.