The text was eagerly awaited. Two weeks after the chaotic scenes at the Stade de France and the political repercussions that followed, the Interministerial Delegation for Major Sporting Events (DGIES) submitted its report on the events of May 28 to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne.
Two years before the Olympics, the report recommends the establishment of a national steering body for international sporting events of major interest, on the model of that already in place for the Paris Olympics. “Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has instructed the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games to take up the recommendations it contains in order to implement them without delay”specifies Matignon.
Regarding the reasons for the failure, the 30-page long document goes over the preparation, establishes a sequence of the evening, details the “malfunctions” and distributes the responsibilities of each, without overwhelming one or the other of the actors, but by undermining the version long defended in recent days by the government. Faulty transport and security device, fraud “unpublished” at the ticket office, uncontrolled delinquency: here are the main points of the investigation report.
Reinforced security system, but quickly outdated
1,680 security guards were mobilized by the French Football Federation (FFF) for the Real Madrid-Liverpool Champions League final, “i.e. +17% compared to the final of the Coupe de France”. On the police side, 6,800 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters have also been deployed, including 1,300 at the Stade de France.
Around the stadium, the pre-screening points were “configured as usual, with 10 palpation lines and 41 agents able to properly handle a flow of 10,000 people”coming from the RER D. But these were loaded with a “double filtering”: inspect the supporters, their clothes, their bags, and control “the validity of tickets either by chemical pens or by electronic cards”. A system already successfully tested for the final of the Coupe de France, “but with only electronic tickets and a low risk of counterfeit notes”.
On May 28, he quickly proved ineffective against the massive influx of supporters. The strike movement on the RER B had in fact led to the transfer of a very large number of travelers to the RER D, which created blockages “between transport exits and pre-filtering points”in particular for lack of suitable signage, notes Michel Cadot.
“Unprecedented” fraud at the ticket office
According to the DGIES, “the main trigger results from the massification of a crowd of spectators in the public space at the level of the pre-filtering points, spectators of whom a significant proportion were without tickets or provided with counterfeit tickets” .
However, the figure of 35,000 people without valid tickets around the stadium [avancée par le ministre de l’Intérieur Gérald Darmanin] is “to relativize”,points to the report, because it corresponds “to the deduction between the total volume of people arriving by any means to the Stade de France and the number of spectators counted in the stadium”. According to a first count, 2,589 unknown tickets were identified by the operator Orange. Three tickets specifically have been duplicated hundreds of times, “with a good quality of visual counterfeit, on a cardboard support”indicates the document.
“Disproportionate” police reaction
The blockages observed during the pre-filtering were reproduced at the level of the input tripods, “preventing people in possession of valid tickets from entering the stadium” , he describes. At 6:30 p.m., faced with a large influx from the RER D, the choice was made to open the dam, to avoid “crushing phenomena”et “a very serious human toll, which would have led to the cancellation of the match” .
Breaking the security perimeter then allows the intrusion of “delinquents in the device”then “the occupation of the southern part of the mall around the stadium by several thousand people without tickets or with counterfeit tickets” . Many thefts with violence are then noted by the police.
The invasion of the forecourt of the Stade de France then “required the use of hand gas canisters and tear gas canisters to restore order and oppose forced entry attempts”of Liverpool supporters and “thugs”justify the authors of the report.
Means “disproportionate”, regretted by the prefect of Police, Didier Lallement. The repositioning of part of the forces inside the stadium on the south side to contain intrusion attempts “contributed to leaving the land to the delinquents”before “calm is partially restored at half-time of the match, episodes continuing throughout the evening and until the spectators leave at the end of the match”. Thirty-five complaints were filed in Seine-Saint-Denis. Eighty-one people were arrested.