THE HEAD of the Paris police has admitted the policing around the Champions League final on the 28th of May was 'obviously a failure' and with that has also apologised to fans for tear-gassing supporters outside the stadium.  

The game between Real Madrid and Liverpool was delayed for 36 minutes, as huge crowds started to gather due to closed gates and poor organisation  of the event 

Police used extreme methods like teargas and pepper spray on supporters looking to attend the game.  



 

Didier Lallement told a commission investigating the fiasco at the French Senate: "It is obviously a failure," 

"It was a failure because people were pushed around and attacked. It's a failure because the image of the country was undermined." 

He also apologised for the use of teargas, but said there was no other way to stop increased crowd size gathering outside the stadium.  

"We needed to get people to move back," Lallement explained. "We asked people to move back, then we used tear-gas... it's the only way to our knowledge of moving a crowd back, except for a baton charge." 

Both Liverpool and Real Madrid have called for an full investigation into the policing and oversight of the final. 

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, who blamed the presence of 30-40,000 supporters without tickets for the chaos came under huge criticism. Darmanin labelled it as "fraud at an industrial level'. 

Lallement said he was responsible for the figure and that he based it on numbers given by Paris transport operators and "feedback" from officers on the ground. He claimed that he never stated his figure was 100% 'accurate.' 

"Perhaps I made a mistake with the figure I gave to the minister," he said. "I never claimed that it was absolutely accurate." 

He acknowledged that there were not 30-40,000 "at the gates of the stadium" but maintained that many thousands were in the vicinity. 

Mayor of the Liverpool city region Steve Rotheram is due to testify to the Senate commission later on Thursday.