France has failed organization of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, Daily Mail reports.
On Saturday, Real Madrid beat Liverpool in the Champions League final to win the lugubrious trophy for the 14th time. For many, however, the Paris match will be remembered more for events outside the Stade de France.
The start of the match was delayed by more than half an hour as the Reds were late to the stadium due to traffic jams. Liverpool fans also had problems: many of them were unable to enter the arena. At the same time other people entered the stands without tickets. And the police used tear gas against the crowded fans outside the arena.
Unfortunately, this scenario was predictable. Suffice it to recall the mayhem that took place just under a year ago in London before the main Euro 2020 match between Italy and England. With mountains of garbage around Wembley, and not only there, with clashes between fans, with the passivity of the local cops.
Eyewitness Mark Ward caught what was happening on camera:
“The French police have only one form of action: aggression and violence. I’ve covered hundreds of events and I don’t think I’ve ever thought they handled anything well.”
UEFA tried to maintain a semblance of calm by first announcing a 15-minute delay for “security reasons,” then extending it to half an hour before the match finally began.
UEFA’s statement also expressed a desire to shift the blame to the fans:
“In the run-up to the game, the turnstiles at the Liverpool end were blocked by thousands of fans who had bought fake tickets, which did not work in the turnstiles. This led to a congestion of fans trying to get in. As a result, the start of the match was delayed by 35 minutes so that as many fans as possible with real tickets could get into the stadium.
When the number of fans continued to grow outside the stadium after the match started, the police dispersed them with tear gas and forced them out of the stadium.
Initially, the Champions League final was not supposed to be held in Paris at the Stade de France, but in St. Petersburg at the Gazprom Arena. On February 25, UEFA announced that the match would be moved from the Russian city to the French city due to the situation in Ukraine. At the time of that decision, the organizing committee for the Champions League Final 2021/22 in St. Petersburg had been active for nearly three years. The Parisians had just over three months to prepare.reports from the stadium sound horrifying.
Here are some opinions of those who experienced it:
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