A group of Stewartry football fans witnessed “shambolic and dangerous” scenes at Saturday’s Champions League final in Paris.
Brian McArthur from Castle Douglas and Kirkcudbright pals Malcolm Kirkwood, Richard Baty and David Mitchell attended the match to cheer on Liverpool against Real Madrid.
And they were shocked by what they witnessed before and after the UEFA final at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.
Some fans were denied entry despite having tickets, others were attacked by both locals and police while there were also transport issues.
Brian, 52, said: “It was shambolic and dangerous. I’ve never been to a football game like that.
“Normally there’s buses put on for a final but there was nothing - there was no thought or care.
“The police didn’t seem to be engaging the locals to stop things. They seemed to be protecting themselves. You didn’t even feel safe speaking to a policeman in case they just hit you.
“We were lucky nothing bad happened to us. We managed to keep our wits about us but if you’d been there with your wife or kids and you hadn’t managed to get a train or a bus you’d have been scared for your life.
“The atmosphere was horrendous. Liverpool fans weren’t causing any trouble, Real Madrid fans weren’t causing any trouble. It was just the locals.”
The four flew into Paris on Saturday morning and, after taking pictures at the Eiffel Tower, took a taxi to the stadium well before the 8pm kick-off.
They discovered there was no proper perimeter stopping people getting near to the ground.
Brian, a self-employed plumber, said: “The stadium is in one of the poorest bits of Paris and there were lots of young locals trying to mug you as soon as you took your wallet out and the police didn’t do anything.
“I showed a little bit of my ticket and the guy let me through the perimeter. We thought after that it would be fine and walked round to the turnstile. We got in but after about 20 minutes we heard people saying they’d shut the turnstiles.
“We could see fans outside up against the fences, showing their tickets. The police would just walk up to the fences and pepper spray them in the face.
“There were kids and women greeting, it was shocking. You could see locals jumping turnstiles at the bottom end of the stadium, but they decided to close the turnstiles at the top. It was crazy.
“Eventually they let them in but the game had started – some people weren’t in until half-time. They just sat with their heads in their hands, telling us people were tying to mug them and the police were trying to hit them.”
The game kicked off half an hour late due to the problems and Real Madrid eventually won 1-0.
And Brian described the situation after the match as “even worse” than what had happened before.
He said: “There was one gate to get out – we were kettled in and it was a disaster waiting to happen. They opened two other gates while we were there, I grabbed my mate and we went through. Just as we left, the police hit someone with a baton.
“We had booked an Uber but were in the wrong area, so we had to run back through the Liverpool fans. People were terrified. The rest of the gates had been shut and Liverpool fans were jumping out.
“There was a bridge back to the hotel where we were due to meet the Uber. Hundreds of young locals were trying to hit you and mug you but eventually we got over it.
“We then went up the wrong road so had to go through them again. When the Uber arrived, he was only going to take three of us, not four. We eventually talked him into it.”
British politicians have called for an investigation into the scenes, but their French counterparts tired to shift the blame elsewhere.
However, Brian described that as “a lie” and pointed out a friend of Liverpool player Andy Robertson was accused of having a fake ticket. He said: “Clearly it’s not a fake ticket if he’s given you it. They were just making that up.”
