The French authorities were negligent, resulting in serious incidents leading up to the 2022 Champions League final in Paris between Real Madrid and Liverpool, in which fans were exposed to great physical danger and all those responsible they made mistakes.
This is clear from the conclusions of the independent investigation commission ordered by UEFA after those riots on May 28 in the vicinity of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, which is published this Monday by the French newspaper Le Monde.
This commission, made up of experts, university students, lawyers and representatives of fan associations, considers that UEFA and the French authorities made major errors and that both, together with the French Football Federation and various ministers, "acted irresponsibly". by "denying responsibility".
The conclusions indicate that the organizers did not take into account the consequences for fans of narrowing access to control terrorist risks, which exposed English and Spanish people to risk situations due to crushing.
Security, they add, was intended to avoid a confrontation between the two hobbies, an unreal risk, because most of the fans were peaceful, but they forgot to face the dangers posed by crime that fans traditionally suffer in France and, especially, in Saint - Denis.
The report also denies the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who spoke of "massive fraud" of tickets that the authors consider that it is not "an exaggerated problem", for which they consider the member of the Government "irresponsible".
In addition, he considers that giving too much importance to this phenomenon led to the installation of filtering points for amateurs that were too narrow, which exposed them to being victims of avalanches.
For hours, the fans were exposed to the criminals, without the police acting, which multiplied the attacks.
When the tension increased, the police opted to use tear gas, a solution that experts consider inappropriate and dictated by the lack of troops.
The wind pushed these gases to an area where thousands of English fans were waiting peacefully, who began a stampede that was very dangerous.
Faced with this, the agents threw mustard gas at them, "a product that has no place in the football festival," "totally inappropriate and disproportionate, as well as potentially lethal," according to the 151-page report, which notes that it is almost miraculous that there were no fatalities.
Due to a translation error, hundreds of agents were placed on the pitch, while there was a lack of troops in the surrounding area to help with the evacuation when the fans were once again exposed to the criminals.
The report ends with 21 recommendations so that these events are not repeated, especially when in just over a year the Stade de France will host the 2024 Olympic Games.
