French Senate wash blame off Liverpool fans for Champions League final

Real Madrid and

faced each other at the Champions League final last year at the Stade de France on May 28. The kick-off was delayed due to alarming scenes outside the stadium in Paris with authorities claiming Liverpool fans should be blamed for having fake tickets and arriving at the ground late.

Later Paris police chief Didier Lallement apologized to supporters for the use of tear gas while two Senate committees launched an investigation to discover what happened. Now the final report has finally been published.

stated:

"It is unfair to have wanted to make supporters of the Liverpool team bear the responsibility for the disturbances that occurred, as the Minister of the Interior did to divert attention from the inability of the state to adequately manage the crowds present and to curb the action of several hundred violent and co-ordinated offenders."

"The systems put in place had major shortcomings with regard to the intelligence [absence of hooligans but presence of delinquents in large numbers], the transport routes for supporters [removal of a drop-off route at the surroundings of the stadium] and insufficient communication.

"It is not only in the execution that problems arose. Upstream, the crisis scenarios were insufficiently worked on and did not demonstrate the necessary flexibility in the face of so many unanticipated events."

Laurent Lafon

, the investigation's co-chairman added: "

The gravity of what happened at the Stade de France shows that there are many decisions to be taken to ensure this doesn't happen again at the Rugby World Cup or the Olympic Games."

He continued: "There was a need to communicate clearly about transporting the fans from the train station between the chief of police, the French Football Federation, and the train operators but this didn't happen.

"We recommend communicating with football supporters more and improving the attractiveness of the area around the Stade de France so that people are willing to arrive early.

"We want the authorities' view of football supporters to change, that is a strong recommendation that we are making."

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