The Paris police chief said on Thursday that he may have been wrong when he said up to 40,000 Liverpool fans tried to enter the Champions League final with fake tickets and he said there was no scientific evidence to support the claim.
Didier Lallement added during a hearing in the French Senate that the police action around the match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France was a “failure” because fans were harmed and the image of France was degraded.
The final, which Liverpool lost 1-0, was delayed by more than 30 minutes after police officers forcefully held back people trying to enter the ground. Riot police sprayed teargas on fans, including women and children.
The French interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said that much of the blame lay with Liverpool fans and that 30,000-40,000 arrived without valid tickets, which led to a crowd crush at the stadium and people trying to force their way in. He was later backed by the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron.
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Darmanin’s version of events has been challenged by Liverpool fans and journalists who attended and they say the vast majority of supporters were well-behaved but were treated in a heavy-handed manner by French riot police.
“I might have been wrong on the figure of 30,000 to 40,000 [fans with fake tickets] I gave to the [interior] minister,” said Lallement. “From an operational standpoint, it doesn’t change anything if it was around 40,000 or 30,000 or 20,000.”
French senators pushed Lallement to explain the empirical evidence behind the figure for fake tickets, which he said had come through reports from police officials on the ground. “It was I who gave this figure to the minister, and I fully stand by it,” he added.
During the parliamentary hearing, Lallement said he was the only one responsible for police action during the crowd trouble around the Stade of France. “We made sure that the game was held and, most importantly, that there were no serious injuries and no deaths,” Lallement said.
He said the only option at his disposal to make sure people did not get crushed was the use of teargas. “Which is the only way to make a crowd back down except to charge them, and I think it would have been a serious mistake to charge people,” Lallement said. “I am well aware that people of good faith were gassed, and I am totally sorry for that, but I repeat, there was no other way.”
He said the evening was “obviously a failure, because people were being pushed around or assaulted while we owed them safety” and added: “It’s also a failure because our country’s image . . . was shattered.”
Many supporters complained about getting mugged after the match as they left the stadium. According to Lallement, 300 to 400 individuals took part in theft and damage.
