France’s justice minister Gerald Darmanin has apologised to Liverpool fans for wrongly blaming them for the chaotic scenes before the 2022 Champions League final.
Prior to the 2022 final against Real Madrid at Stade de France in the northern suburbs of Paris, supporters were trapped in dangerous bottlenecks, teargassed by police and attacked by local youths.
Two days after the final, Darmanin — the French interior minister at the time — jointly-held a press conference with France’s sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera where they blamed “British fans” for arriving late to the Stade de France and “fake tickets”, claiming as many as 40,000 were in circulation close to the stadium.
In March 2023, UEFA said they would issue refunds to the 19,618 Liverpool fans who attended the final after an independent report blamed the shortcomings on European football’s governing body and the French authorities for the chaotic scenes.
“Yes, it was a failure,” Darmanin said on the Legend show on YouTube, in quotes carried by AP.
“Because I hadn’t checked what was happening properly, which was my mistake, and because I gave in to preconceived ideas.
“The culprit was easy (to designate), and I apologise to Liverpool fans. Of course they were right to (feel upset).”
He added: “During my first public outing, I said what I was told, which was ‘Well, the English are causing mayhem’. It wasn’t true in the literal sense of the word.”
Darmanin also admitted that security measures for the final were inadequate with forces not prepared for thefts and assaults from external gangs.
“Our security system wasn’t designed for that at all,” he said. “The CRS (riot police), mobile gendarmes with big boots and shields, they’re not great for running.
“We got our system wrong. We were expecting a hooligan war, and instead we got people who came to steal.”
The 2022 final had initially been scheduled to be played in St. Petersburg, but was moved to Paris in February that year by UEFA following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
(Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)