UEFA has published its independent review into the chaotic Champions League final last May and it is brutally honest in admitting its own failings. The events in and around the Stade de France as Liverpool played Real Madrid in European football’s showpiece event made global headlines for all the wrong reasons. Television pictures of French police teargassing supporters, including children, were beamed around the world and caused a political furore in Paris.
The government, notably the Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudea-Castera, initially blamed English fans for the trouble, a position they maintained for weeks until the accumulation of evidence elicited what can best be described as a reluctant and half apology from Darmanin.
Monday’s report absolves English and Spanish supporters from any blame, and described the French government’s attempt to smear fans as ‘reprehensible’.
‘Crack hill’ is the name of a notorious area in northern Paris where migrants cohabit with crack addicts in squalid tented camps
It also states that UEFA bears ‘primary responsibility’ for the disastrous logistical and safety failures that turned the evening of May 28 into a shambles.
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