One of the main organisers of Liverpool's hugely successful victory parade last weekend has spoken out about the differences between that event and what happened in Paris the day before.
Claire McColgan is the director of culture at Liverpool City Council and was tasked with pulling together the huge city-wide event in just a number of weeks. It is estimated that 500,000 people lined the streets of Liverpool to welcome the team home and celebrate their FA and Carabao cup triumphs.
There were no arrests, no problems and a festival atmosphere around the city. The scenes were in stark contrast to the chaos and danger experienced by so many fans the night before in Paris.
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Ms McColgan, who has overseen other huge city events like the Giants Spectacular and the pandemic pilot events, said she watched on with horror as fans were forced into small, claustrophobic spaces. She said: "I was watching in disbelief, I was thinking how on earth has this happened?"
She added: "When planning any major events like these, it is all about the planning, you have to test out all the worst case scenarios and you always must have a plan B ready in case things go wrong. You have to accept that things can go wrong, but the planning you do is to mitigate those risks."
"To see a major international event like that with none of that mitigation was truly shocking. I have not seen anything as bad as that in my time in this job."
Ms McColgan, who was this week awarded a CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to arts and culture, said she was also shocked by the lack of responsibility taken by those in positions of power and responsibility for Saturday's event. She said: "At most major events you will see fake tickets, but to use that as an excuse for what went wrong is awful. Sometimes things will go wrong at events, but as organisers you are responsible and you have to accept that."
Speaking about the contrast with Sunday's parade, she added: "The next day we had half a million people lining the streets for a moving event that went around the city. There were no arrests, no problems, it was joyous. It was so brilliant to see so many people come out and support the team, the players loved it."
She added: "I do think that could only have happened in Liverpool, after the disappointment of the final, to see so many people come out and show that togetherness and spirit. Nowhere does big events like this city."
