Gérald Darmanin took it for his rank on Tuesday June 21 as UEFA officials, Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters followed one another in front of the Senate to report on the chaos that reigned around the Stade de France on the evening of the Champions League final on May 28. Ted Morris, representative of the Disabled Supporters Association of Liverpool, demanded an apology and even the resignation of the French Minister of the Interior. Martin Kallen, managing director of UEFA Events, for his part completely questioned the figures given by Gérald Darmanin during his own hearing three weeks ago.
Gérald Darmanin’s role was repeatedly mentioned on Tuesday when parliamentarians this time heard from a senior UEFA official, two representatives of Liverpool supporters, a Real Madrid supporter and officials from the Football Supporteurs Europe (FSE) group. In question, the minister’s accusations a few hours after the serious malfunctions in the organization of the final: Gérald Darmanin had castigated the English supporters, presenting the thesis of a “massive, industrial and organized fraud of counterfeit tickets” creating disorder.
“But a lot of counterfeits never made it to the turnstiles […] How many?” We don’t know, we couldn’t really check. We don’t believe that was the number mentioned after the first days in France, more or less 30,000 to 40,000,” he said.
The floor was also widely given to foreign supporters. “You, Monsieur [Darmanin], have humiliated the inhabitants of Paris. Your endless lies and false stories have only amplified our trauma,” said Ted Morris, representative of the Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association, present at the Stade de France on May 28. “I ask you to withdraw your brutal and baseless accusations and, if you do not have the decency to do so, you must choose the most honorable course and resign,” he said.
In front of the senators, Ted Morris read the testimonies of “traumatized” disabled supporters, victims of theft or assault by local gangs in Saint-Denis or sprayed with tear gas by the police. “It’s the most terrifying experience I’ve ever had in Europe with Liverpool,” he said, recalling Liverpool’s 1989 trauma at Hillsborough, where 97 supporters were killed in a massive uproar. crowd.
Member of the Spirit of Shankly supporters group, Joe Blott also asked the French authorities to “retract” their accusations and present “full apologies”, pointing to France’s damaged reputation. “To ensure the safety of fans at the Rugby World Cup [in 2023, editor’s note] and at the Olympic Games [2024] in the coming years, there needs to be a full, independent and transparent investigation so that the world regains confidence in the France’s ability to organize global sporting events,” he said.
For the time being, UEFA announced at the end of May an investigation entrusted to the former Portuguese Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Tiago Brandao Rodrigues. Martin Kallen clarified that the latter had started its work “this week” and could deliver its conclusions “in September”.
For Martin Kallen, paper tickets, which are easier to forge, were less appropriate than certified electronic tickets. But “it wasn’t just the paper tickets that created chaos outside the gates,” he argued. “The causes are multiple: transport strike, bad reactions from stewards, law enforcement, there were offenders [in the perimeter, editor’s note], an extremely large flow in front of the stadium without tickets or with counterfeit tickets “, he argued.
