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Liverpool FC chairman demands apology from French sports minister
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Liverpool fans queuing for the Champions League Final were kettled and pepper-sprayed. /Fernando Kallas/Reuters

Liverpool fans queuing for the Champions League Final were kettled and pepper-sprayed. /Fernando Kallas/Reuters

Liverpool FC chairman Tom Werner has demanded an apology from the French sports minister after she blamed the trouble that marred Saturday's Champions League final on fans with fake tickets and the club's handling of their supporters.

The match at the Stade de France, which Real Madrid won 1-0, was delayed by more than half an hour after police tried to hold off people trying to force their way into the ground. Some fans, including children, were tear-gassed by French riot police.

On Monday, sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera said that the initial problems were caused by Liverpool fans without valid tickets and accused the club of letting their supporters "out in the wild". French interior minister Gerald Darmanin added that there had been a "massive (ticket) fraud on an industrial scale". 

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The images have tarnished the reputation of the French capital, raising questions about its ability to host major sporting events as it gears up for the 2024 Olympics, as well as the 2023 Rugby World Cup.

Werner, part of the US-based Fenway Sports Group that owns Liverpool, hit back late on Monday in a letter to Oudea-Castera, describing her comments as "irresponsible, unprofessional, and wholly disrespectful to the thousands of fans harmed physically and emotionally.

"I am writing to you today out of utter disbelief that a minister of the French government... could make a series of unproven pronouncements on a matter of such significance before a proper, formal, independent investigation process has even taken place," Werner wrote in his letter, quoted in the local Liverpool Echo newspaper.

"The UEFA Champions League final should be one of the finest spectacles in world sport, and instead it devolved into one of the worst security collapses in recent memory," said Werner.

"On behalf of all the fans who experienced this nightmare I demand an apology from you, and assurance that the French authorities and UEFA allow an independent and transparent investigation to proceed."

 

UEFA's independent report

UEFA has commissioned an "independent report" into the problems at the final that would "examine decision-making, responsibility and behaviors of all entities involved". Portuguese politician Tiago Brandao Rodrigues has been hired to oversee the report on a pro bono basis on the completion of which they will decide upon a course of action.

Meanwhile Oudea-Castera has asked Michel Cadot, the inter-ministerial delegate for large sports events, to produce a report within 10 days.

In an interview with the Liverpool FC website, CEO Billy Hogan said the club was also reviewing legal options on behalf of their supporters. Fans who attended the game are being asked to complete a feedback form in order to support an investigation.

Numerous first-hand accounts of the chaos have emerged from fans, which inevitably brought back painful memories of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in which police crowd control failings led to the deaths of 97 people in a stadium crush. Then, as at the weekend, police initially blamed ticketless fans, but supporters were eventually exonerated after a decades-long legal fight.

In his letter, Werner called the events in Paris "incredibly dangerous for all who attended" and urged against "a blame game strategy via press conference".

"I have received countless emails from Liverpool supporters who were frightened to death, and subject to police harassment, pepper spray and tear gas," he added.

Source(s): Reuters

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