The UEFA independent report into the chaos outside the Stade De France has praised Liverpool fans for protecting each other when French police were nowhere to be seen.
UEFA organised for a panel of experts to investigate the shocking treatment of thousands of Liverpool fans who travelled to Paris for the Champions League Final against Real Madrid on May 28, 2022. Fans outside the Stade de France were tear gassed by riot police, crushed when trying to enter the stadium and mugged by armed gangs of locals.
The panel has now finalised its conclusions, with the 158-page report being published. The report says UEFA bears "primary responsibility" for the chaotic scenes.
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During a section of the report where is goes through, point by point, exactly what happened on match day in Paris, Liverpool FC fans are praised for protecting each other when French police were not there. MP Ian Byrne is quoted in the report saying supporters had to "steward the crowd ourselves".
He said: "I called to all supporters nearby to take videos of the events unfolding if they could and I went in search of someone in authority to do something before people died. I ended up in a line of people being funnelled towards one single open turnstile.
"All around me people were screaming that they were being crushed as the pressure being built up by the funnel. I shouted at the police to open additional turnstiles, but to no avail.
"Some of us shouted to supporters to take a step back to relieve pressure, which they did thankfully. We had to steward the crowd ourselves, using our experience, due to the absence of any stadium organisation.
"I eventually was funnelled through a turnstile and came out into the space behind turnstiles, then I saw a scene I thought and prayed I would never see again; people with their faces pushed against the railings, screaming, and being crushed.
"I ran to the two stewards I could see, and I begged them to open additional turnstiles to relieve the pressure, because I could only see people once again dying at a football match. A steward who looked senior came running up to me and told me I would be arrested if I did not stop protesting.
"I was then called over by LFC stewards who were in tears because they were shamefully not being utilised and their warnings were being ignored by the stadium management”.
The panel looked at video evidence and eyewitness accounts and came to the conclusion that if it wasn't for Liverpool fans protecting each other there could have been fatalities.
The report said: "With no police to protect anyone from sporadic criminality, it appears from video footage and eyewitness accounts, that Liverpool supporters on this part of the concourse spontaneously formed orderly queues, regularly admonished those seeking to circumvent these and collectively organised to protect the vulnerable.
Indeed, the Panel concurs with Scraton et al (2022) that the capacity of the Liverpool supporters to self-organise within this context was a primary factor in preventing harm and ensuring our inquiry is investigating a ‘near miss’ rather than a stadium tragedy involving fatalities."
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