A message displayed at the Stade de France blaming supporters for the delayed kick-off at the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid had been 'pre-prepared', it has been claimed.
Thousands of Liverpool supporters were treated dangerously in the surrounding areas of France's national stadium, located in Saint-Denis, and many more missed kick-off despite arriving almost three hours before the scheduled time of 9:00pm.
Poorly designed ticket checkpoints led to worrying bottleneck congestions occurring outside the stadium, in routes that had been flagged as unsuitable as far back as 2016. Some fans were attacked by local gangs and tear-gassed by riot police.
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The scheduled kick-off time was eventually pushed back by more than 30 minutes in order to allow those who were experiencing difficulties getting into the Stade de France, due to heavy-handed policing protocols, to enter before the start of the match. Upon announcing the first delay to kick-off, UEFA displayed a message on the screen blaming supporters as their initial reasoning behind the delayed start to the showpiece event.
"Due to the late arrival of fans, the match has been delayed," read the message inside the Stade de France on May 28, and simultaneously broadcast across the globe.
However, it has now been suggested, via a detailed Guardian report, that the message displayed prior to Liverpool's 1-0 loss to Real Madrid had in fact been pre-prepared by UEFA in the days leading up to the event. The words projected by UEFA understandably angered thousands upon thousands of Liverpool fans both in Paris and back in the United Kingdom.
In the days following the events in Paris, UEFA continued to pedal the false narrative - that was quickly disproven by those in attendance who had captured footage of their traumatic experience outside the Stade de France - that fake tickets had been the cause of such unsavoury scenes.
“We are hugely disappointed at the stadium entry issues and breakdown of the security perimeter that Liverpool fans faced this evening at Stade de France," read a statement from UEFA, European football's governing body. “This is the greatest match in European football and supporters should not have to experience the scenes we have witnessed tonight.
“We have officially requested a formal investigation into the causes of these unacceptable issues. In the lead-up to the game, the turnstiles at the Liverpool end became blocked by thousands fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles."
Speaking to the Guardian in reaction to their new report, Ian Byrne - a Liverpool MP and supporter who was at the match - slammed UEFA as he said: “I find it truly shocking and horrifying to hear that UEFA – the confederation of Europe’s national football associations including the English FA – had a pre-prepared statement blaming supporters, as a standard explanation for a kick-off delay. To do it to Liverpool supporters after everything we’ve been through is appalling. We need full answers as to how all these decisions were made.”
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