FRANCE'S NEW Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra has blamed Liverpool fans without tickets for the scenes prior to the Champions League final in Paris.
French police used tear gas and harsh methods on fans outside the ground ahead of their 1-0 defeat to Real Madrid at the Stade de France in what was described as one of the darkest days in footballing history.
There were also reports of muggings from local youths outside the ground from various reports
🗣 "The figures of 30,000 to 40,000 without tickets or with fake tickets."
French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera on the fake tickets that made it into the #UCLFinal pic.twitter.com/h251WGLCSr— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 30, 2022
Oudea-Castera speaking to French radio network RTL said: “What happened, first of all, was this mass gathering of the British supporters of the Liverpool club, without tickets, or with fake tickets”
"When there are that many people by the entrance to the stadium, there will be people trying to force their way in through the doors of the Stade de France, and a certain number of youths from the nearby area who were present tried to get in by mixing in with the crowd."
She also said Real Madrid fans had no problems organizing their supporters who came to Paris.
"Liverpool left its supporters on the loose, this is a major difference," she added
Gerald Darmanin interior minister also reiterated his collegue's message and and said that that 'fraud on an industrial scale' caused the issues outside the ground.
"It was noted there was massive fraud on an industrial scale and organization for fake tickets because the pre-filtering by the Stade de France and the French Football Federation saw that 70% of tickets were fake tickets coming into the stadium," he said.
He also mentioned that the problems were exacerbated by local youths trying to force their way in to the game
People flocked to social media to rip apart the notion that Liverpool fans were to blame for the chaos around the Paris event.
One person said: 'Absolutely shameful, it’s a different lie every time they speak,with some random number they’ve plucked out of thin air.'
'People will leave saturday scarred, I spent the entire day yesterday trying to digest what happened whilst hearing horrific stories of what my mates endured.'
Another said: 'I’ve never heard so much rubbish from the French. The organization was appalling from start to finish'.
French authorities are due to meet with UEFA officials today.
"There was massive fraud at an industrial level."
The French Interior Minister speaks to the media on the trouble before the Champions League final. 👇 pic.twitter.com/ilJV6qnPf1— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) May 30, 2022
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