Real Madrid and Liverpool supporters will be able to “start Monday” denounce the incidents in their respective countries during the chaotic Champions League final, which pitted these two clubs against one another, announced Gerald Darmanin, the French Minister for the Interior.
French police officers will travel from Madrid to London to collect complaints from Spanish and British supporters who were victims of infractions and have not been able report them in France because they have returned to their home countries following the match. The minister informed the French Senate commissions of Laws and of Culture.
Both teams’ fans denounced the assaults and robberies by local criminals and police officers in the media and on social networking sites. The complaints will be handled by the Bobigny and Paris public prosecutor’s offices. Darmanin stated that the negative image of the party is “an injury for our national pride” but acknowledged that “things could be better organized.”
During his appearance before Senate, the minister stated that 35,000 English fans were without tickets or had counterfeit tickets. This was in addition to 75,000 people who had valid tickets to the final. The chaos that followed made it impossible for 2,700 British fans to get into the stadium even though they had tickets.
2.800 fake tickets were collected from Liverpool fans trying to get into the Stade de France’s turnstiles to view the game. The minister stated that the same entry had been duplicated 744 times and 760 times, respectively.
Due to the high number of fake tickets found by Liverpool fans, the Bobigny prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation.
Darmanin said that there were no problems with Madrid fans because most had electronic tickets, and not paper, as Liverpool fans. Strikes on commuter trains that lead to the stadium were also caused by the chaos created by managing the large influx of fans.
Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, accused Darmanin of lying about figures for forged tickets hours before they appeared before the Senate. The far-right leader believes that the Home Secretary should resign, and “apologize to Liverpool supporters.”
According to Olivia Gregoire, a French government spokesperson, Darmanin still has the “all confidence of President of the Republic”, Emmanuel Macron.
