France must NOT be allowed to host major finals after the Champions League fiasco in Paris, insists leading French fan advocate, who blasts the policing methods used as ‘archaic’ and endangering lives of Liverpool fans
- France ‘should not host major finals after the Stade de France debacle last May’
- That conclusion comes from the leading French fan advocate Ronan Evain
- Evain is part of the review into chaos surrounding the Champions League final
- His comments are mentioned in a 12,000 word report from the Mail on Sunday
- The report shows how police endangered lives with indiscriminate use of tear gas and how the authorities lost control due to an abject lack of coordination
- Thousands of fans were forced into near-fatal crushes and attacked by gangs
France should not host major finals after the Stade de France debacle in Paris last May, according to a leading French fan advocate who sits on the Independent Review into the Champions League final crowd-control issues commissioned by UEFA.
Ronan Evain, executive director of Football Supporters’ Europe, who attended the final as an accredited observer through UEFA’s observation programme and who is part of the review run by Dr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues, says French policing methods are so archaic that UEFA should take a stance and insist no more finals are hosted at the Stade de France.
The Paris stadium, which was the site of the carnage as Real Madrid beat Liverpool 1-0, is due to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup final and the 2024 Olympics.
His comments come as Sportsmail publishes a 12,000-word report, bringing together the testimonies of more than 40 eye witnesses and drawing on reports made by the French Senate and the initial government review from the department responsible for major events.
The report has been passed on to Dr Rodrigues by Sportsmail and is being published online as a public resource.
Sportsmail‘s report shows how police endangered lives with their tactics, especially the indiscriminate use of tear gas and how the authorities lost control of the event, due to major technology failures, incoherent planning, poor intelligence and an abject lack of coordination.
Thousands of fans were forced into near-fatal crushes and attacked by local gangs.
The Stade de France ‘should not host major finals after the Champions League carnage in May’
That’s according to leading French fan advocate Ronan Evain, of Football Supporters’ Europe
The Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool was marred by chaos in Paris
In the wake of the role that tear gas played in creating the stampede which resulted in the deaths of 131 fans at the Kanjuruhan stadium in Indonesia earlier this month, Sportsmail is calling for UEFA to refuse to host finals at stadiums unless the authorities guarantee they won’t use tear gas.
Sportsmail also recommends that UEFA should not host finals in France and that it should take a much more proactive role in insisting that its fans and customers are treated civilly, making it part of the hosting contract and that TV contracts should stress that kick-off times are provisional and will be delayed for as long as necessary in the event of crowd issues.
Evain said: ‘Seeing the aftermath and the light way in which the public authorities and police have treated this, I don’t think France should have a major final at the moment.
Kick-off was delayed because poor planning prevented Reds supporters from getting inside
Many fans with tickets were unable to enter the stadium due to major technology problems
French police are also accused of being heavy-handed and endangering lives with their tactics
‘We haven’t had a strong signal of change in France. There hasn’t been a proper review other than the Senate hearings, which were useful and provided strong recommendations.
‘But we haven’t seen any sign of a thorough review. None of the important issues have been addressed.
‘It’s a very French thing to ignore the issue and move on but we have an ageing national stadium, with major congestion issues and I don’t think it would have been chosen had it not been for the war in Ukraine.
Police at the final used tear gas indiscriminately and authorities lost control of the event
Evain said after a hearing about the event, France was trying to ‘ignore the issue and move on’
Initially the chaos was blamed on fake tickets before French Government Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin later apologised for the bad management of Europe’s showpiece event
A report ordered by France’s government found the chaos was caused by ‘operational failures’
‘One of the lessons of Paris is that UEFA have to bring more influence to bear on the public authorities and the police of host cities.
‘Public authorities and police can’t be allowed to take control of everything and modify and change plans at the last minutes. That, combined with an old school approach of policing, was behind what happened.
‘I hope that there can be change and UEFA can ensure that authorities police finals like any other public events and make that a key element of the hosting contract.’
Sportsmail‘s full report is available here.
