"Football crazy, football (gone) mad"

[Bayleaf]

Slight variation to the song - but what a stormy weekend it has been in the football world? Just getting over what happened at the Liverpool -v- Real Madrid game in Paris. (Can't help thinking that if Liverpool had won, there would be less complaining). Heavy handed police, likened to another potential Hillsborough disaster (but maybe by using the awful tear gas, it actually prevented a storming of the gates, and people getting crushed).

Then, https://www.sudouest.fr/sport/football/ ... 119236.php in the Sud Ouest:

Crazy scenes as more fans lose their rag because their team lost.

Is this post-Covid-lockdown behaviour of people going crazy? Or is this just another normal day in the world of football? (Puts tin hat on, as I've bound to upset someone! )

[MAD87]

I sat down to watch the match and eventually got peed off - I didn't think it would ever start.

I have to say that my only experience of Stade de France convinced me that the French are pretty poor with crowds. This was a 6-Nations match: rugby fans are a pretty docile lot but I made allowances for the November attacks being a very recent memory. There were 'stop and search' barriers, but the search was perfunctory to say the least. I'd been to the world cup in Cardiff a few months earlier and the contrast was very striking - same size of crowd - around 80k - but Paris was total chaos, Cardiff was ultra-organised and effective.

Post match was dreadful. Cardiff police had had a simple system with clear directions to funnel spectators towards train/bus stations which had us out in no time. The Paris police/military were clueless, let everyone out at once and waved their sub-machine guns at anyone who dared to ask for directions to specific stations. We nearly missed our train back to Limoges.

[Bayleaf]

Yes, French military do have a heavy handed reputation - putting it mildly! I see UEFA are equally sharing the blame for the chaos. Thousands of fake tickets too? Thousands? Really?

[niemeyjt]

Interesting listening to a Liverpool MP on R4 Today program. Someone I would expect to be informed and impartial. He was scathing about French Police actions - so let us also see what the UK Police who were in attendance also say. But given what has happened in past protests, I suspect nothing will happen.

[ajm]

"Fans" climbing over fences don't help the situation.

[Pathca]

The Uk police said that the vast majority of Liverpool fans behaved impeccably,and thought it was badly handled ,the tear gassing of fans who weren’t doing anything was not good to say the least and many impartial people have criticised the police behaviour( although UEFA aren’t without culpability )
Sorry but I can’t agree that had the result been different there wouldn’t have been complaints I was seeing comments and issues being raised before the match ended

[Blaze]

I think one element that has been overlooked are the casseurs who were clearly present. Most (but certainly not all) real fans wear their favoured club's colours and a lot of the troublemakers appeared out of nowhere. There clearly was problem with forged tickets, judging by the number of people waving tickets outside who were unable to get in. 70,000 fans were expected, and with the number that actually turned up with a bona fide ticket or not, plus the casseurs, it was no wonder that the police and security services were overwhelmed.

[niemeyjt]

Interesting listening to a Liverpool MP on R4 Today program. Someone I would expect to be informed and impartial. He was scathing about French Police actions - so let us also see what the UK Police who were in attendance also say. But given what has happened in past protests, I suspect nothing will happen.

Well the head of the Paris Police has put his hands up, it seems, for the debacle.

Paris police chief 'made a mistake' in saying 40,000 Liverpool fans had fake tickets

The head of Paris police has admitted he may have falsely stated up to 40,000 Liverpool fans tried to get into the Champions League final with fake tickets.

Didier Lallement confessed to being responsible for widely-discredited figures quoted by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin in the aftermath of the chaos to engulf football’s biggest annual match.

Testifying before a commission investigating the fiasco at the French Senate, Lallement also acknowledged the “failure” of security operations for the game at the Stade de France and apologised for tear-gassing supporters as they tried to enter the stadium.

“Perhaps I made a mistake with the figure I gave to the minister,” Lallement said. “I never claimed that it was absolutely accurate.”

The police chief said he based the figure on numbers given by Paris transport operators and “feedback” from officers on the ground.

He acknowledged that there were not 30,000-40,000 “at the gates of the stadium” but maintained that many thousands were in the vicinity.

Claims of industrial-scale ticket fraud infuriated Liverpool supporters, as well as senior British politicians, who accused France of unfairly trying to deflect the blame away from the police.

The May 28 match, which was won by Real Madrid, was marred by scenes of mayhem as fans struggled to enter the stadium for the game, raising questions over the capacity of the French capital to host the 2024 Olympics.

“It is obviously a failure,” Lallement said. “It was a failure because people were pushed around and attacked. It’s a failure because the image of the country was undermined.”

He said he was “sorry” for authorising the use of tear gas to move supporters away from the stadium before the match, but added that there was “no other means” of relieving the growing pressure at the gates.

“We needed to get people to move back,” Lallement explained. “We asked people to move back, then we used tear gas... it’s the only way to our knowledge of moving a crowd back, except for a baton charge.”

He encouraged supporters from Liverpool and Real Madrid to file complaints if they were victims of counterfeit tickets or street crime outside the stadium “so that we can find the guilty parties and prosecute them”.

Mayor of the Liverpool city region Steve Rotheram was due to testify to the Senate commission later on Thursday.

source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/20 ... y-failure/

[DaveW]

The only good thing is that nobody died or was seriously injured. At least the truth is emerging quickly this time. I have a couple of nephews who went with valid tickets and didn't get in until half time. Their nightmare began after the game when fans, from both sides were being mugged by the local hooligans. There were no police present.

[Liz]

To be honest I cannot comment as I have no first hand knowledge.
Despite being 'your' footie league manager and prepared to get to the bar to watch the game where we were staying near Saumur, Fixit and I were mugged en route by a bunch of Frogs from the Rennes area. They insisted we drank fizz (me) and beer (Fixit) with them and that our mutt was cuddled to within an inch or 2.54cms of his life by their enfants.
We caught up on the second half, but didn't hear of the awful trouble until I logged in to wifi the next day.
Awful, how could that happen in 2022?