French government apologises for Champions League chaos in Paris
The French interior minister Gerald Darmanin has refused to back down on claims the use of fake tickets caused the chaos at last week's Champions League final in Paris
Ahead of the Champions League final against Real Madrid on Saturday, thousands of Liverpool fans struggled to get into the stadium, with French officials and UEFA initially blaming supporters with fake tickets for the chaos.
The French government has faced criticism and now government spokesperson Olivia Gregoire has apologised to fans who were unable to get into the stadium.
"Could things have been done better? Could it have been better managed? Yes,"
she said.
"Was there a tragedy or injuries? No. Can we improve things in sight of the next sports competitions? Certainly.
"What was shared this morning is that we must keep a little composure, even if things are to be improved. We must not forget those who, before the government, had a bad evening, that is to say the supporters, the families, the 2,700 spectators with tickets who could not see the match.
"As a priority, the President of the Republic and the whole of the government were sad and sorry for these people, who were displaced and were simply deprived of a match."
But French interior minister Gerald Darmanin at a French senate hearing again claimed between 30,000 and 40,000 people without tickets had been present outside the stadium.
"Regarding the tickets, the Liverpool club asked that the tickets - the entirety - be in paper, whereas for all the other meetings of the competition, this was not the case,"
said Darmanin.
"It does not mean that all the fans had fake tickets, there were also spectators without tickets.
"People with counterfeit tickets passed the first screening and caused technical errors on the stadium turnstiles. Thus, people entered the stadium without control and took the place of people who had real tickets but who could not enter.
"Regarding the 30,000 to 40,000 counterfeit tickets, we never said so. We have always communicated about 30,000 to 40,000 people [either] without tickets or with counterfeit tickets. If some call us liars, we have sources.
"We arrived at a figure of between 109,000 and 119,000 people around the Stade de France, so much more than the real capacity of the enclosure."
"Liverpool is not a club like any other, [In] Madrid, in 2019, there were exactly the same problems, [the] same difficulties of counterfeit tickets and people outside the stadium.
"Our mistake was undoubtedly not to see that tens of thousands of people without tickets would go directly to the Stade de France."
Darmanin however apologised for the use of tear gas by police outside of the stadium.
"It is obvious that for all football fans, the negative image of this match is an injury. Could we have avoided and anticipated more? No doubt," he added. "But I regret the criticisms suffered by the forces of order, which I represent and command."
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