Fuck UEFA And Fuck The French Lying Cunts

[the chimp]

The club needs to be speaking to Real and both coming out against those useless cunts in UEFA and the shithouse French bizzies. Have a look at this from a German publication - it's from Pierre Barthulemy (a board member for Football Supporters Europe and a lawyer):  

https://m.dw.com/en/what-went-wrong-at-the-champions-league-final/a-61969518

 

Fake tickets an absolute non-starter and scarily similar to Hillsborough in terms of the people in charge of policing the event. A heads up that the inquest in France will also be an absolute sham.

 

 

SPORTS

What went wrong at the Champions League final?

Fans squeezed dangerously in to narrow concrete passages, a constant fog of tear gas and clashes over 'fake' tickets. DW takes a look at exactly what happened from on the ground in Paris.

    

 

Chaotic scenes ahead of the Champions League Final were a troubling sign for UEFA

Thousands of supporters being sent to the wrong place, the spread of questionable rumors about fake tickets, the decision to close initial ticket checkpoints and the slow reaction of inexperienced police lacking leadership were among the primary causes of the disturbing scenes that overshadowed Saturday's Champions League final.

That's the view of the overwhelming majority of Liverpool fans, but it's also how Pierre Barthulemy, a lawyer and member of the board of Football Supporters Europe who was at the game, sees the situation.

"I really don't understand how they [those in charge of security] could mess things up so badly," Barthulemy told DW. "And the worst part is that it happened and they needed two hours to understand."

That's how long it took to close the narrow concrete entrance next to a motorway where most Liverpool fans, and this reporter, were funnelled to from the train station. The failure to respond to the initial error delayed thousands of fans from entering the stadium and meant kickoff was put back twice with swathes of seats still empty. Organizers UEFA initially attributed the match delay to "the late arrival of fans."

UEFA's went from blaming the "late arrival" of fans to a "security issue"

A crazy situation

It was clear that this was not the case, with some fans being held in the passageway for hours. Eventually, police decided to close this, and other, initial ticket checks to allow easier access to the outer perimeter of the ground. Barthulemy, who had already contacted the police officers in charge to point out the issues, says this was another mistake.

"It was crazy to see that no-one understood the problem. No-one reacted," he said. "We lost two hours, then they decided to drop the first checkpoint and that was the point where people without tickets from the neighbourhood came and decided to climb over the fences. That was the point where it got completely out of control."

His observations are borne out by all the Liverpool fans this reporter spoke to and by my own personal experience on the day. But it soon got much worse for those who had shelled out to see their team in a Champions League final.

"While we queued, the mood was jovial," Liverpool fan Claire, who attended the match with her 70-year-old father told DW. "From nowhere there was panic in the crowd, people running and the [tear] gas hit us.

"We were stunned, we had to run away. There was a young girl, probably early 20s, a Real Madrid fan distraught being cuddled and shielded by what I assume was her partner, kids crying, people in pain and utter confusion. Anyone could've been hurt in a crush as people ran for cover through a narrow gap, herding people into crush situations. My first thoughts were 'is my dad ok?'. He's asthmatic and I could hear he was struggling. It was so confusing and distressing to see innocent people treated like that."

Fan-park issues

Such a situation is particularly traumatic for many Liverpool fans, given the deaths of 97 of the club's fans in a crush at English stadium Hillsborough in 1989. Some English media, most prominently The Sun, blamed Liverpool fans for the crush which was later proved to be the fault of negligence by police and ambulance services despite a large scale cover up.

"It was a first European final and will be the last for us," Stuart told DW. "I have to say I think if it wasn't for a scattering of calm Liverpool fans reminding others to chill and remember the 97, things may have got a lot more out of hand."

About 12 kilometers southeast of the stadium, Liverpool fans who weren't lucky enough to get tickets were at the UEFA-sanctioned fan park. Fans there reported riot police pushing people away and a number of French locals goading fans and attempting to pick pockets.

The locals were causing a significant problem back at the stadium too, says Barthulemy. The decision to drop the first control point enabled dozens to climb the fences and try and rush the gates leading to the stadium itself. This led to more tear gas, which caught up Liverpool fans, journalists and often children and elderly people.

Over at Gate Y, one of the main ways in to the ground for the English fans, rumors of fake tickets had meant only one turnstile was open around the originally scheduled kickoff time of 21:00 local time. UEFA claim that "the Liverpool end became blocked by thousands of fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles." Barthulemy disputes this.

"I stood at Gate Y for an hour and I only saw about 10 people with fake tickets being arrested by the police," Barthulemy told DW. "All the hundreds, maybe thousands, of fans still outside the stadium at this time had valid tickets. And when they showed these valid tickets, they got teargas as an answer."

Liverpool tweeted during the match to say they have "officially requested a formal investigation into the causes of these unacceptable issues" while players from both sides have expressed their disappointment at UEFA's handling of the evening.

Even Merseyside Police's matchday officers, who traveled with Liverpool, broke ranks to question the official interpretation of the evening from UEFA and the Paris police.

No voice at the table

Though players, clubs and foreign police have all expressed concerns, none will have a representative in a meeting headed by French Ministry for Sport set for Monday morning, according to Barthulemy.

Given the scope and length of the Hillsborough cover up, English football fans will be skeptical that a meeting of the sides who already have a party line will help. Problems at the Europa League and Euro 2020 final also suggest this is a problem that UEFA are reluctant to address.

Barthulemy adds that French police also have plenty to answer for. With away fans largely banned for club matches, Head of the Interior Ministry's anti-hooligan division Thibaut Delaunay's force is inexperienced in dealing with football matches.

"The man in charge of the policing of fans in France was in Qatar all week to organize the next World Cup, allegedly," said Barthulemy, who found Delaunay's absence problematic.

"His number two was on vacation and his number three was not easy to reach by phone. When we went to the stadium, we saw him, the chief of the department, and he was just showing people from Qatar the stadium. He had no walkie talkie, no earpiece, he was obviously not working the game. While everything was going down, he said 'Everything is going fine, there is no fighting, everything is a big success'."

While there may have been success on the pitch for Real Madrid, the failures of those charged with ensuring the safety of fans must surely now be analyzed.

Edited by Jonathan Harding

[deiseach]

If there had been massive ticket fraud then we would have numerous reports of people being the victims of ticket fraud, people who paid thousands and are now wailing about being ripped off. Yet there is nothing. Less than nothing, to which Andy Robertson can attest. I suppose they only have to maintain the lie long enough for the news cycle to move on. Dispiriting.

[Nelly-Szoboszlai]

How were they able to establish that the issues started because of the alleged number of fake tickets/alleged ticketless “supporters” (or locals) when it appears that hardly any turnstiles were open and hardly anybody was able to get near to them at the time that the trouble was ongoing? 
 

We need to try and create some dialogue with Real Madrid so that we can get accounts from their fans - many of whom were apparently subjected to various levels of criminality ranging from thefts and robbery to sexual assault at the hands of gangs of youths who were free to hang around outside the stadium - which will help to establish that there seemed to be a complete lack of policing around the ground, be that crowd control measures or crime prevention. 

[Section_31]

I remember reading a Brian Reade piece in France 98 when England fans kicked off. Apparently a load of North Africans from a rough part of Marseilles where the coppers don't go came into town to fight the English and the English followed them home and smashed up their estate. Some bar owner was brushing up glass and said to Reade 'I'm not happy, but I do admire the English sense of social justice." 

[gkmacca]

8 minutes ago, Nelly-Matip said:

How were they able to establish that the issues started because of the alleged number of fake tickets/alleged ticketless “supporters” (or locals) when it appears that hardly any turnstiles were open and hardly anybody was able to get near to them at the time that the trouble was ongoing? 
 

We need to try and create some dialogue with Real Madrid so that we can get accounts from their fans - many of whom were apparently subjected to various levels of criminality ranging from thefts and robbery to sexual assault at the hands of gangs of youths who were free to hang around outside the stadium - which will help to establish that there seemed to be a complete lack of policing around the ground, be that crowd control measures or crime prevention. 

Even if there is some instance of fake tickets, there's absolutely no basis on those grounds to run around spraying people in the face with tear gas or pepper spray. The French authorities need to be pressed on that point. It's absurd that they're even trying to cover up the whole range of mistakes with speciously factual references.

[Vincent Vega]

On 29/05/2022 at 01:03, Vincent Vega said:

 

The fix is in and has been since the kickoff was delayed. Look at this Tweet from a journalist just after the scheduled kickoff. The French were blaming our fans before they had a clue what had happened, and UEFA were only too happy to go along with it.

[gkmacca]

Inside the Champions League final chaos: Bribes to stewards, riot police and ticketless fans

 

Alyson Rudd

 

The centre of Paris was chicer than on my last visit. It sparkled. The Liverpool fans sang and were filmed by polite tourists and the waiter, who at the start of lunch was resolutely neutral, was wooed by the passion and told me he would be supporting my team after all. The stage was set for something magical. Instead, I was transported on the RER train back into the 1990s and greeted by a straining, snarling police dog outside the Stade de France as a Liverpool fan was hauled to the ground by an armed policeman for asking a question about how to gain entry.

 

Indeed, the route in was not signposted, there were no stewards to offer advice and I was caught up in a Kafkaesque giant circling of concrete pillars trying to find the one tiny, single entrance that was in use.

 

There was a bottleneck caused by fans with tickets they did not know were fake, by fans being told valid tickets were fake, by fans trying to pass off home-made QR codes as tickets, by fans adopting the tactic of shouting indignantly for so long at the perplexed and bored security officials that they were let through just to stop the ranting.

Supporters told me they saw stewards accepting bribes and letting in the ticketless.

 

Some fans simply scaled the railings to avoid the ticket checks. None that I saw were fans of Liverpool. Something felt very wrong. The mood was far from celebratory. There was sourness and suspicion and incredulity. Friends who had arrived two and half hours before kick-off, queued for 90 minutes before reaching a turnstile. People checked their watches and started to become anxious. Several times male supporters ushered me in front of them, told others to let me through. This was not corny chivalry but protectiveness of someone more likely to be shoved further away from the gates as the overall anxiety grew. These acts of generosity were emotive, they were a reminder that a family friend survived Hillsborough because of the selflessness of supporters, lifted to safety by men unable to save themselves.

 

I made it to the concourse before the tear gas was used and took my seat to be greeted by gaps in the Liverpool end. The flags swayed almost limply as the announcement came that the late arrival of fans would delay kick-off. This was not only untrue but palpably untrue. It cast a shadow over the match. The Liverpool fans were relatively quiet. It felt at times as if all of them were thinking: “Really? This is still happening in 2022? Lies, aggression and ineptitude from those in charge.”

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I was sitting near the half-way line and behind a Spanish couple who were, presumably, on their honeymoon, so often did they cling and kiss and fondle once Real Madrid had taken the lead. All around me people sat on the steps or on the feet of others. One ticketless chap opted to scream wildly for both teams which was highly disconcerting. Another appeared to have sneaked in just for the pre-match fireworks which he cheered and photographed before looking bored by what followed.

 

Emmanuel Macron was thanked by Uefa for allowing the 2022 Champions League final to be held in Paris after the sanctions taken against Russia in February which meant the game had to be moved from St Petersburg. One can only assume those in charge of policing the Stade de France were less than delighted with the switch for they afforded fans no welcome, no information, no dignity and applied warped, heavy handed and illogical security measures.

 

As riot police lined up in front of the Liverpool fans, but not those from Madrid, before the final whistle I decided I would have to make a run for it as soon as the game ended. This was not as simple as it sounds. All the gates were still locked and so, once again, needless anxiety was allowed to swell. I found a gap, darted through and, basically, ran away. I was overtaken by a fan urging me to be careful because he had just been beaten up.

 

I do not think France really wanted to host the game at all. Bars were happy enough to charge €19 (about £16) a pint, taxi drivers tried charging a curious €27 per person for a half-mile ride, hotels insisted on a minimum of two-night bookings, and, in return, visitors were treated, bafflingly, as trespassers.

[Strontium]

23 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I remember reading a Brian Reade piece in France 98 when England fans kicked off. Apparently a load of North Africans from a rough part of Marseilles where the coppers don't go came into town to fight the English and the English followed them home and smashed up their estate. Some bar owner was brushing up glass and said to Reade 'I'm not happy, but I do admire the English sense of social justice." 

 

After this weekend, I think a lot of our fans now understand why so many French are willing to vote for horrible bastards like Le Pen.

[gkmacca]

3 minutes ago, Strontium said:

 

After this weekend, I think a lot of our fans now understand why so many French are willing to vote for horrible bastards like Le Pen.

I still doubt THAT!

[DaveT]

Waiting in anticipation for the French authorities to produce the thousands of fake tickets that the police presumably confiscated in order to investigate their source. 

[Bjornebye]

Why would people understand why some French want right-wing racist Le Pen in because of the other night? 

[DJLJ]

3 minutes ago, DaveT said:

Waiting in anticipation for the French authorities to produce the thousands of fake tickets that the police presumably confiscated in order to investigate their source. 

https://www.skysports.com/share/12624209
 

according to this, the minister said 70% of tickets were fakes, so I assume they have many thousand tickets to investigate and some people to get long jail sentences if this ‘industrial level fraud’ claims are indeed true. 
 

somehow I don’t think I’ll hold my breath for this to happen…

[Gooch]

I know I shouldn't look but the state of the blue moon forum is something else. Absolutely deranged.

[gkmacca]

16 minutes ago, DJLJ said:

https://www.skysports.com/share/12624209
 

according to this, the minister said 70% of tickets were fakes, so I assume they have many thousand tickets to investigate and some people to get long jail sentences if this ‘industrial level fraud’ claims are indeed true. 
 

somehow I don’t think I’ll hold my breath for this to happen…

 

I'm very much stuck at novice level when it comes to industrial fraud practices, having slept through the lectures, but it strikes me as a tad irrational and counter-productive for industrial level fraudsters to flood the market to that extent for a very specific event like that. That seems more rational for industrial level anarchists. 

[Strontium]

6 minutes ago, gkmacca said:

I'm very much stuck at novice level when it comes to industrial fraud practices, having slept through the lectures, but it strikes me as a tad irrational and counter-productive for industrial level fraudsters to flood the market to that extent for a very specific event like that. That seems more rational for industrial level anarchists. 

 

It's just possible the French minister is not being entirely truthful.

[gkmacca]

1 minute ago, Strontium said:

 

It's just possible the French minister is not being entirely truthful.

Thanks for making explicit the implicit. Don't feel you always have to do it though.

[Daisy]

Even more convinced after that lying french bitches statement that they were fucked off with the fan park. They just did not like the amount of people in the fan park area and wanted to punish us

[Section_31]

1 minute ago, Daisy said:

Even more convinced after that lying french bitches statement that they were fucked off with the fan park. They just did not like the amount of people in the fan park area and wanted to punish us

My take on it, from a distance admittedly, is that locals descended on the place intent on causing trouble, our fans were caught in the mix and the French police went into 'English hooligans' mode and starting being twats. The French authorities then tried to cover it up by blaming the English supporters. Tale as old as time. 

[Paul]

Sorry if someone’s already made this point, but where the fuck is Gary Neville in all of this? That cunt has got an opinion on every fucking thing in the world and yet hasn’t said one word about this.
 

This is one of those issues where his voice would carry serious weight. It’s not about Liverpool; it’s about football fans. Him adding his voice to the calling out of the mistreatment of Liverpool fans as a very famous Manc could be incredibly powerful. And yet he’s silent.

 

 

[Pidge]

The underpass checks just make no mathematical sense to me. Had to expect 8-12k through there at least and only seemed to have 3/4 people actually checking the tickets (anyone seen anything clearer on that? seen a few varying vids floating around). 

 

At (a generous) 5 seconds per ticket, that's like 2.75 hours as a best case scenario...

[Mook]

1 minute ago, Paul said:

Sorry if someone’s already made this point, but where the fuck is Gary Neville in all of this? That cunt has got an opinion on every fucking thing in the world and yet hasn’t said one thing about this. 

 

 

Personally I'm enjoying the silence from the little rat.

 

Long may it continue.

[Daisy]

3 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

My take on it, from a distance admittedly, is that locals descended on the place intent on causing trouble, our fans were caught in the mix and the French police went into 'English hooligans' mode and starting being twats. The French authorities then tried to cover it up by blaming the English supporters. Tale as old as time. 

 

Yeah that probably caused most of it but there were no locals causing trouble at the fan park and the police did similar tactics. 

 

Blocked the entrance, shut roads miles away from the park and shut the main metro station near it. 

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, deiseach said:

If there had been massive ticket fraud then we would have numerous reports of people being the victims of ticket fraud, people who paid thousands and are now wailing about being ripped off. Yet there is nothing. Less than nothing, to which Andy Robertson can attest. I suppose they only have to maintain the lie long enough for the news cycle to move on. Dispiriting.

And where are all these tickets? They didn't even manage to present one at their press conference. Obviously there would be some, there is at every big event, but 40k? I'd be expecting them to present us with thousands. And they're claiming there were 2000 at the gate. But does she mean 2000 like the ones Andy robbos mate had?

 

And it made me laugh when she said "there were fakes that looked just like the real thing". What the fuck did they think they'd look like? Someone just printed on a bit of paper "this is a ticket, please let me in". 

 

As the tickets were arriving, one of the first posts I saw on here was how easy the tickets looked to forge. I thought the same and assumed they put some magic in the QR code. But they know what they've done to filter fakes and should be prepared for it.

 

Even if there were 100k fakes, it doesn't excuse indiscriminately gassing fans with valid tickets. There should have been a simple filter in place to check tickets and then remove those people and their tickets from the area. And not some dickhead with a marker pen, a proper filtering with trained staff, reliable equipment and adequate, respectful police and a mechanism to move out those with invalid tickets. Instead it was organised by cunts, managed by cunts and run by cunts. 

[Barrington Womble]

6 minutes ago, Paul said:

Sorry if someone’s already made this point, but where the fuck is Gary Neville in all of this? That cunt has got an opinion on every fucking thing in the world and yet hasn’t said one thing about this.
 

This is one of those issues where his voice would carry serious weight. It’s not about Liverpool; it’s about football fans. Him adding his voice to the calling out of the mistreatment of Liverpool fans as a very famous Manc could be incredibly powerful. And yet he’s silent.

 

 

But it is about football fans and he only gives 2 fucks when it suits he ego. He was alright with their fans breaking into old Trafford 18 months ago causing the postponement of a game. He's a fucking self serving tit. 

[Anubis]

Ok, let’s take Madame Pompotwit’s more conservative figure of 30,000 fake tickets, and divide it by the 120 minutes before the game. That would mean they were checking 250 tickets per minute. 
 

Madam, you are taking bullshit.