The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, apologized on Tuesday for the management of public order around the Stade de France in the Champions League final and acknowledged that the big problem was the crime suffered by the fans. "I apologize to all those who suffered from this mismanagement," Darmanin said in an interview with the RTL radio station, in which he explained that since then the organization has changed, and in particular that the means to fight the delinquency.
The minister, who immediately after the incidents of May 28 blamed in particular English fans who had come to Paris with false tickets (he numbered between 30,000 and 40,000) recognized the responsibilities of his services and his own.
"Could the Stade de France have been managed better? The answer is yes. Do I have a part of the responsibility? The answer is yes," he said before insisting that three other massive games have been held there since then and there have incidents, something he attributed to this new organization.
Because he stressed that what failed that night was "essentially" the fight against crime in Seine Saint Denis, the department bordering Paris where the Stade de France is located. In fact, one of the biggest complaints from the Liverpool and Real Madrid fans who attended the meeting was the robberies and assaults they suffered, attributed to criminals in the area.
When asked about the divergence in figures on false tickets, between the 2,500 cited by UEFA and those he initially gave, the French minister minimized the controversy and explained that those 2,500 were the ones that were presented at the turnstiles of the Stade de France, and the number he quoted referred to those that circulated in the city. "The Stade de France problem is essentially a matter of reviewing the fight against crime in Seine Saint Denis," he repeated.
Darmanin referred to the incidents after the final that Real Madrid won against Liverpool with a goal from Vinícius. However, the security deployment also broke down in the run-up to the game, when some fans with tickets in hand (they sold them fake) were victims of an overwhelmed police who used tear gas.
