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A fan climbs on the fence in front of the Stade de France in Saint Denis near Paris prior to the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid on Saturday. Photo: AP

Uefa commissions independent report into events surrounding Champions League final

  • ‘The comprehensive review will examine decision-making, responsibility and behaviours of all entities involved in the final’, Uefa said in a statement
  • French authorities defended police on Monday for indiscriminately firing tear gas and pepper spray at Liverpool supporters at the Champions League final in Paris
Uefa

Uefa has commissioned an independent report into the events surrounding Saturday’s Champions League final in Paris, the European governing body has announced.

A Monday evening statement from the European governing body read: “Uefa has today announced it has commissioned an independent report into the events surrounding the Uefa Champions League final in Paris on Saturday, May 28.

“The comprehensive review will examine decision-making, responsibility and behaviours of all entities involved in the final.”

Fans shows tickets in front of the Stade de France before the Champions League final football match between Liverpool and Real Madrid in Saint Denis near Paris on Saturday. Photo: AP

The review will be carried out by Dr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, a member of the Portuguese parliament and former member of the World Anti-Doping Agency Foundation Board.

The statement added: “Evidence will be gathered from all relevant parties and the findings of the independent report will be made public once completed and, upon receipt of the findings, Uefa will evaluate the next steps.”

French authorities defended police on Monday for indiscriminately firing tear gas and pepper spray at Liverpool supporters at the Champions League final, while blaming industrial levels of fraud that saw 30,000 to 40,000 people try to enter the Stade de France with fake tickets or none at all.

Concerns raised over police aggression at Champions League final

After a meeting into Saturday’s chaos, the ministers of the sport and the interior shifted responsibility on to the Liverpool fans while not providing details on how they were sure so many fake tickets were in circulation. People with legitimate tickets bought through Liverpool and Uefa reported struggling to access the stadium.

“There was massive fraud at an industrial level and an organisation of fake tickets because of the pre-filtering by the Stade de France and the French Football Federation, 70 per cent of the tickets were fake tickets coming into the Stade de France,” Interior minister Gerald Darmanin said. “Fifteen per cent of fake tickets also were after the first filtering … more than 2,600 tickets were confirmed by Uefa as non-validated tickets even though they’d gone through the first filtering.

“A massive presence of these fake tickets of course was the issue why there were delays, three times the beginning of the match was delayed.”

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. Photo: EPA-EFE

Uefa launched an independent investigation into what caused the chaotic scenes and said the “comprehensive review will examine decision making, responsibility and behaviours of all entities involved in the final.”

The final, which Liverpool lost 1-0 to Real Madrid, kicked off 37 minutes late. Tear gas and pepper spray was targeted at Liverpool fans, impacting children – a tactic defended by Darmanin to prevent deaths.

“I’d like to thank the forces of law and order, also those who worked in the stadium because they were very calm and they were able to avoid drama and so thank you for organising the pre-filtering but lifting it when there was too much pressure to avoid a drama,” Darmanin said. “That was a decision made by the prefecture to avoid any kind of deaths or seriously injured.”

French Sports minister Amélie Ouéda-Castéra blamed fans arriving at the stadium late for the crowd control issues, but did not say when they should have arrived at the stadium on the outskirts of Paris.

“We have seen, we have to improve in risky matches certain aspects with regard to managing the flows, first filtering, second filtering, and we have to make sure we look at electronic ticketing as closely as possible so we can avoid fraud as far as ticketing is concerned,” Ouéda-Castéra said. “That is something which is absolutely essential.”

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There was no apology for the conduct by authorities.

“We are extremely sorry for all the people whose experience was wasted all that evening,” Ouéda-Castéra said. “For the people who had bought tickets and were unable to attend the match. That’s why we have asked Uefa to really work on a compensation system for those people – 2,700, including British people – so that they get compensation.”

Uefa did not raise the issue of compensating fans in its statement about its own investigation.

“Evidence will be gathered from all relevant parties and the findings of the independent report will be made public once completed,” Uefa said, without giving a timeline.

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