UEFA has announced that a 'comprehensive Independent review' into the chaos that ensued at the Champions League Final.
The governing body of European football has been under immense pressure in recent days after the debacle in Paris on Saturday night. Before the game, thousands of Liverpool fans were denied entry into the stadium and video footage shows pepper spray and tear gas being indiscriminately used by French police.
“UEFA has today announced it has commissioned an independent report into the events surrounding the UEFA Champions League final in Paris on Saturday, May 28," reads a statement released by UEFA this evening.
“The comprehensive review will examine decision-making, responsibility and behaviours of all entities involved in the final.”
It added: “Evidence will be gathered from all relevant parties and the findings of the independent report will be made public once completed and, upon receipt of the findings, UEFA will evaluate the next steps.”
Many criticised the French police and UEFA for their crowd control skills, or lack thereof, on Saturday night. As a result, the biggest game in European football was overshadowed by an unnessecarily dangerous situation.
Some of the claims emerging from Saturday's fiasco are very alarming. Accusations of disabled fans being tear gassed have been made, while Liverpool legend Jason McAteer claims that his wife and son were attacked at the game.
In an Irish Mirror exclusive, a Liverpool fan gave his account of the scenes outside the stadium, which you can read about here.
Ex-Republic of Ireland international David Meyler took to Twitter to share his experience of the carnage.
"Tonight is the first time in my life that I’ve been scared entering a football ground."
"UEFA you should be ashamed of yourselves."
Originally, UEFA blamed the late arrival of fans for the games delay. That was immediately refuted by journalists and eye-witnesses, who say Liverpool fans were queuing for hours to get into the stadium.
Another common reason put forward by UEFA and French authorities is that there were a significant amount of fans trying to use counterfeit tickets to enter the game.
Earlier today French interior minister Gerald Darmanin used this very excuse to explain the incident. According to Mr Darmanin, thousands of fans tried to use counterfeit tickets to gain access to the Stade de France on Saturday evening.
“There was massive fraud at an industrial level and organisation of fake tickets, 70 percent of tickets were fake tickets coming into the Stade de France, ” Darmanin told a press conference.
“More than 2,600 were confirmed by UEFA as non-validated tickets even though they had gone through the first filtering.
“The massive presence of the fake tickets was the issues which meant there were delays, three times the match was delayed."
UEFA have not, at this time, revealed any further details about the investigation. For now, we should just be thankful that Saturday's horror-show didn't descend into tragedy.
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