In an overwhelming report, of which “MO12345LEMONDE” became aware, the independent panel of UEFA is strickers with the security management of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real, in Saint-Denis, May 28, 2022 .
by Antoine Albertini and Rémi Dupré
Their work does not aim to instruct a trial, any more than it constitutes a “formal legal process”. But the editors of the independent investigation report commissioned by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), of which MO12345lemonde has learned – a 151 -page document, without the appendices -, and devoted to the organization of the final calamiteuse of the Champions League, on May 28, 2022, at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), between FC Liverpool and Real Madrid, nonetheless draw up an implacable indictment against public authorities.
The investigation, carried out for eight months with the protagonists of the event by a “panel” of lawyers, academics and representatives of supporters of supporters, demonstrates the responsibility of the French authorities in the endangerment of thousands British and Spanish supporters, in almost peaceful almost all, threatened with crushing on several occasions, attacked by bands of delinquents, sprayed with gas by the police. Ajusting observation: better organized and more reactive than the police and the gendarmes responsible for ensuring their safety, these “fans” of Liverpool or Madrid owed their salvation only a flawless solidarity and an ability to discipline themselves that force admiration in a context as resolutely hostile to them.
At the origin of this fiasco, the terror, inspired by a fantasized “hooligan threat”, erected risk number one of the meeting, served as a matrix for a chain of errors of appreciation around an obsession: Avoid the scenario of June 13, 2016 in Marseille, when a Euro match between England and Russia had resulted in clashes between hooligans from the two countries. Focused on this danger, the public authorities will ignore the observation made in 2015 by a delegation from the Council of Europe in France and widely shared since: the violence systematically committed by bands of delinquents against foreign supporters – a specialty French which is not the prerogative of the Seine-Saint-Denis.
problem of false “exaggerated” tickets
From March 25, 2022, a tripartite meeting between the French Football Federation, the Stade de France (CSDF) consortium and the Saint-Denis prefecture therefore points to the “risk” posed by the qualification of a British club. “Thousands of English supporters could join Paris for the occasion, the minutes of the meeting are alarmed. Most of these spectators would have no ticket to attend the final.” The national division of fighting against the Hooliganism (DNLH), which estimates between 50,000 and 70,000 the number of Liverpool supporters devoid of tickets, may clarify that such a phenomenon is not unusual and does not include any particular risk, those responsible for Security, a prefecture of police in the lead, do not bother: a private supporter of ticket can only be a spoilsport.
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