The Champions League final will fill football fans’ minds not as a celebration of sport but rather as a nightmare. The pre-match unrest took on tremendous proportions towards the end. Clashes erupted between fans and police. Law enforcers used tear gas. More than 200 fans required medical assistance and around 70 people spent the night in police stations.
Total chaos, fans and players alike said of the incident, and pointed out that it was hard to imagine a more disastrous organization of the match. It started with a delay of almost 40 minutes. There were problems with security and spectator access to the stadium. And some people even tried to break into the stands without tickets. However, not everyone managed to get into the match.
And the British media, citing eyewitnesses, say that police sometimes acted unjustifiably harshly. The Daily Mail, for example, says that pregnant women and children were among those who were pepper gassed.
The English call France a “lousy country” and a “police state”. Gendarmes beat them with batons and fired tear gas.
England football legend and popular TV journalist Gary Lineker was shocked by what happened and spoke out frankly on social media.
– I’m not sure you can organise a worse sporting event than the French did. Disorderly and dangerous is how it was. The organisers said the start of the match was delayed because of the late arrival of the fans. Bullshit! It’s impossible to get into the stadium. Absolute carnage,” noted Lineker.
Daily Mail journalist Rob Draper gave more details of what was going on in front of the Stade de France in the hours before the game.
– On the approach to the stadium, Liverpool fans were for some reason sent from their side to the Madrid side. And there was only one tiny entrance! As I walked past, there was wild whistling and noise. Everything was blocked off. And at the start of the match the English stand was half empty,” Draper wrote.
Sky Sports journalist Cave Solhekol said the report that the start of the match was delayed due to Liverpool fans arriving late was a total lie.
– None of this has anything to do with reality. In addition, they used tear gas on us. And for no reason at all,” said the journalist.
Neil Jones, a journalist for the popular goal.com portal, explained how the French police had treated the fans before entering the Champions League final arena.
– It was all wrong and needs to be investigated immediately. The whole thing has overshadowed football. Fans with tickets were treated like dogs. The organisers didn’t organise a damn thing,” said Jones.
Steve Douglas of the Associated Press, a major news agency, said French law enforcers had forced him to delete all the videos he had made.
– A security guard or a policeman put me in a barracks, asked me to withdraw my accreditation and forced me to delete the videos of what was going on. Otherwise they threatened to not let me back in,” Douglas reported.
British journalist Carrie Brown also witnessed the scenes on the approach to the Stade de France and gave details.
– I have now seen what the French police are doing. They were just shooting this gas even at parents with children at the Z entrance,” Brown reported.
Renowned British TV presenter Piers Morgan was not left out of the chaos before and during the Champions League final.
– What the hell is going on in Paris? It looks like real chaos, with thousands of people unable to get into the stadium. How is this possible at such a major event? The organisers should be ashamed of themselves,” Morgan pointed out.
England fan Neil Atkinson accuses the organisers of lying and explains how it really was.
The match in Paris was in fact hastily organised. The main meeting of the tournament was originally supposed to be hosted by St. Petersburg, which had won this right in a competitive battle. But, as they say, politics intervened – UEFA decided to move the game to the French capital. The match, by the way, ended in a win for Real Madrid. The Spanish club defeated English Liverpool 1-0 to become the League champions for the 14th time.