Claire Thomson
Late arrivals and fraudulent tickets have been blamed for chaotic scenes outside the Stade de France before Saturday’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
Liverpool’s attempt to win the Champions League trophy for the seventh time ended in disappointment on Saturday evening as Vinicius Junior scored in the 59th minute to give Real Madrid the victory for the fourteenth time.
Despite Real’s 1-0 victory writing coach Carlo Ancelotti’s name into the history books with his record fourth triumph as a coach in this tournament, for Liverpool, their magnificent season, which brought them the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup, ended just six days after missing out on the Premier League to Manchester City by just one point, with a lop-sided mixture of emotions and double disappointment.
However, the final will also be remembered for the chaotic scenes outside Stade de France with tens of thousands of Liverpool supporters, some targeted with pepper spray and tear gas by French police, unable to enter the stadium. This forced the 8pm kick-off to be delayed by 36 minutes.
Fans were searched multiple times before entry, while police vans blocked part of the route through narrow underpasses to direct people towards a ticket shop. The stampede resulted in a lack of ticket checks at the police barricade and people entering without tickets, including local youths who had been attempting to snatch bags and other possessions from supporters. It was at this checkpoint that fans reported being doused in what was thought to be pepper spray, leaving some of them vomiting and others rushing for water from neighbouring bars to ease the pain.
When finally reaching the gates, fans described more chaotic scenes, such as people being manhandled through the turnstile without their tickets being scanned as well as some trying to jump the barriers. Women and children were supposedly pulled out of the crowds to prevent them being crushed in the rush.
Fans were still seen to be entering the stadium 30 minutes after the delayed kick-off. Real Madrid fans on social media also reported long queues before kick-off, as well as disruption by local youths and an overwhelmed police force.
The chaos erupted again when the gates were opened following the final whistle. Liverpool supporters said that mob police lined up in front of them, ignoring the Real Madrid’s supporters’ section, while local youths rushed the gates and police fired what appeared to be tear gas into the crowd.
The French government has since suggested there were between 30,000 and 40,000 ticketless Liverpool fans who attempted to gain entry to the stadium.
UEFA declined to give details of the anti-fraud measures used on the tickets at the Champions League final, saying: “Tickets contain a number of security features and the design is different for every single competition.”
This is still under investigation with UEFA commissioning an independent report into the scenes outside the stadium.
Feature image courtesy of Tim Bechervaise via Unsplash. No changes or alterations were made to this image. Image license can be found here.
Claire Thomson
Aspiring Sports Journalist and Modern Languages Student (French/German) at University of Glasgow