fbpx
Connect with us

English Premier League

Police use tear gas on Liverpool fans amid carnage outside stadium and kick off delayed

Police use tear gas on Liverpool fans amid carnage outside the stadium and kick off for the Champions League match delayed.

Fans of the Premier League outfit were reportedly met with chaotic scenes as they arrived into the stadium in the French capital on Saturday, and there are claims that they were herded away from the Liverpool end. Instead, reports suggested they were pushed towards the Real Madrid end.

Gary Lineker, who was struggling to get entry to the ground just 15 minutes before the original kick-off time of 8pm, wrote: “Finding it impossible to get in the ground. This appears to be very dangerous. Absolute carnage.”

Security and policing at the ground have since been slammed by many inside the stadium, as footage went viral online showing thousands of Liverpool fans being bottlenecked into a solo gate.

Liverpool fans outside the ground reported police using tear gas to contain the crowd.

One Liverpool supporter wrote: “French police tear gassing people tryna get in the stadium,” while another posted: “Absolutely disgusting police are using tear gas on people @uefa absolutely disgusting”

Kick-off at the Stade de France was delayed by 15 minutes (to 8:15pm) due to security issues outside the ground, with ticketed Liverpool fans unable to get in.

However it also seems there were some without tickets who were attempting to get into the stadium. Footage showing fans pushing over security barriers and jumping past fences in order to get into the ground.

The game didn’t get underway until around 8:35pm.

James Olley from ESPN explained to BBC 5 Live that the issue was the location of the perimeter for ticket checks. He said: “It is the outer perimeter that is the problem.

“It is a stadium that has main roads out of Paris and the river at the back and the issue is that there are underpasses where they have decided to check tickets. At that point they are checking tickets, searching bags and taking alcohol off people.

“The problem is it takes time but secondly there are a lot of people outside without tickets. In an ideal world you would want something to stop tens of thousands of people without tickets getting to the outer perimeter and chancing their arm. It is tense out there.”

Former ECHO journalist Andy Kelly said: “Absolutely dreadful organisation at Stade de France. Here two and a half hours early, 1000s still outside. Police herded fans into dangerous bottleneck in underpass. Now gates shut with fans with tickets all stuck outside. Disgrace UEFA.

“Fans queuing outside with tickets for a gate that’s been shut for no reason just been tear gassed. Throughly unpleasant experience and so dangerous. This isn’t how fans should be treated in a civilised society. Unacceptable”

Former LFC CEO Peter Moore tweeted: “Disgraceful scenes outside the stadium. ‘Late arrival of fans’ should read ‘horrendous organization’. Fans have been here for hours. Stadium operations incapable of managing flow and access. Victim blaming at its very best…”

Journalist Nick Harris tweeted: “Absolute shambles. At least someone has taken a sensible decision to push back kick-off and hopefully communicating that to fans outside.”

A UEFA tweet read: “For security reasons, the UEFA Champions League final kick-off has been delayed by 15 minutes. It will now start at 21:15 CET.”

Alan Shearer on BBC Radio 5 Live: This is such a shame. There are so many empty seats in that Liverpool section. Everyone has worked so hard to get here. For everyone with tickets to make it to the stadium and not be allowed in through no fault of their own is an absolute disgrace.

Presenter Kelly Cates, attending the final as a supporter, had also tweeted: “Absolutely shambolic at the Stade de France. No way in, no way of knowing which way to go. Stay safe if you’re heading in… It has the potential to be very dangerous.”

BBC Journalist Nick Parrott outside the ground in a personal capacity speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live: “I have just been pepper sprayed for the first time in my life. I have been to the Champions League final before and I have never been pepper sprayed before.

“I was outside Gate Y which has been opening and closing repeatedly over the last hour and a half but nobody has been going through. The security staff on the other side advanced and sprayed pepper spray.

“I have seen 10 fans trying to climb over fences. Gate Z is open but there does not seem to be any movement going in. I have never seen this sort of chaos at any match I have been to in a personal capacity.

“The Liverpool fans are trying to move themselves back from these gates to try and get in but the authorities seem to be doing nothing. I came to get into the stadium at seven o’clock.

“I got through the outer perimeter where there is crushing. I came round in good time and it was quite clear that we were not going to get in before nine o’clock.”

Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, speaking to BT Sport: “You hope the police can control it in the right way. You want it to be a positive experience and to be talking about the action on the pitch.

“You don’t want an unsavoury event. The traffic was horrendous on the way. Let’s hope everyone gets home safely.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if there were 60,000-80,000 Liverpool fans in Paris.”

Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Solhekol at the Stade de France: “In the last few minutes, me and three of my crew were tear-gassed for no reason whatsoever by the French police. It was a pretty nasty experience but we sorted it out by getting a few bottles of water and pouring it in our eyes. We are all fine.

“The situation here is a bit of a strange one. I think what has happened is a lot of people have turned up at the stadium without tickets. They seem to be young, French people just milling around and trying to break through the security cordons.

“From what I’ve seen, even at the Liverpool fan park, the French police’s attitude has been very heavy-handed with absolutely zero tolerance. They don’t care how much of a crush is developing and they are insisting on searching absolutely everybody before they let them through.

“We had a situation at the fan park this afternoon where some Liverpool fans were queuing up for three hours to get into a free event. There were three, four, five checkpoints where they were being held up and searched.

“We had the same situation at the stadium tonight. There are so many police, riot police and security guards here and their mindset has been to stop anybody without a ticket getting anywhere near the stadium.

“The situation is complicated because we’re not just talking about paper tickets, we’re talking about in the modern age, people have passes on their phones. They haven’t been able to bring up the right passes or find their passwords. We’ve seen people in tears because they’ve had their tickets swiped from them. People have had their electronic tickets stolen from them.

“As far as the police and security here [at the Stade de France] are concerned, they don’t care. They don’t want anybody near the stadium if they don’t have tickets. I’m walking around the streets now and it’s full of young, French people trying to find a way to get inside the security cordon.

“I can only say from what I’ve seen as an eyewitness myself, but I haven’t seen any Liverpool supporters whatsoever causing any problem at all. I haven’t seen them turning up late, I was quite shocked at how early supporters had turned up at the stadium.

“We got here about four hours before kick-off, expecting it to be quite quiet. But it felt like it was an hour before kick-off because so many people had arrived early and in good time. I would be very wary when I read statements from UEFA blaming the kick-off being delayed and the problems outside the stadium on the late arrival of fans. That is not the case from what I have seen.

“I have seen quite a few fans trying to trick their way past security guards and the policemen and all of those supporters. It was one of those incidents we got caught up in when we were teargassed, a group of riot police were trying to eject some Real Madrid supporters who were trying to get through the cordon without tickets.

“There was a bit of a confrontation between the Spanish supporters and the riot police, and that’s when they got out the tear gas and we happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“But I have to stress again – with my own eyes, I haven’t seen any Liverpool supporters causing any problems or trouble whatsoever.”

Phil McNulty (BBC Sport chief football writer at Stade de France): “It is no surprise the Champions League final kick-off has been delayed. Thousands of fans were in a bottleneck just beyond an underpass when I tried to get near the stadium a couple of hours before and there was huge build up at the gates well before the scheduled start of 21:00 local time.

“The atmosphere was already thick with tension even then because the queue was not moving. Those queues were certainly building up at the entrance I initially tried to get into well in advance of the kick-off.”

Dominic King from the Daily Mail speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live: “I have been back out to turnstile Y which is right behind the Liverpool end. I have spoken to a number of them about their experiences. They have been pepper sprayed by the French police. There a re kids in the queue, old people in the queue. they have been there two hours.

“It came from nowhere. The anger the people feel in terms of how they have been treated…I need to get this point over. There has been no violence or antagonism they are just dismayed by how the authorities have treated them.

“The anger of the people I have spoken to is like nothing I have experienced. It is a failing of the authorities and police with how they are being looked after outside.

“There have been some fans that have tried to get in, I’d be disingenuous to say that was not the case but not like groups or anything like Wembley. This treatment is entirely in one direction.”

SEE MORE: Liverpool supporters left stranded as coach to Paris ‘drives past’ them at bus stop

There was Twitter reaction as police use tear gas on Liverpool fans amid carnage outside stadium and kick off delayed…

@tsimiks: This video just makes me angry. An 8 year old get pepper sprayed.

@TheAnfieldTalk: If anyone tries to blame Liverpool fans for this, they seriously need to give their head a wobble. Absolutely unacceptable from UEFA. It is entirely on them and the French police.

@FootyIsThe0ne: Literally every tweet from reporters who are at the ground is making it clear that the fault for this lies firmly at the feet of UEFA and the French police, yet dickheads are still blaming Liverpool fans and using deadly disasters of the past to score points on here

@andywhite1143: Don’t let anyone tell you this is the fans. It’s piss poor organisation. Madrid already in and Liverpool kept outside for 2 hours… Poor, poor show from the Police and UEFA. 😡

@stamfordlad19: French police are always grade 1 cunt. Beating up fans … using tear gas … very typical of French scums. Paris should never be allowed to arrange any UCL final again!

@kittycat542: Any fucker moaning about the delay to the game is an arsehole. Rather have our fans safe and not crushed . French police have had really poor planing and it’s a disgrace, but please don’t f moan about keeping our fans safe

@mdeeks76: LFC fans tear gassed. All because French police have shut gates. French police being heavy handed. Let’s remember why this game was moved to Paris, because off war ffs.

@kendallrowanx: This isn’t fair. There are people showing you tickets and you’re pepper spraying them? Why?

@Fankongress: After #Sevilla now #Paris… the @UEFAcom don’t care about the fans. #uefamafia

@lfctanmay: Fans supposed to enjoy the “opening ceremony” with this still going on behind the scenes

@SMXLFC: They’re literally just waiting to get into the ground. My heart goes out to them tonight. This was supposed to be the best day of their life. Ruined by the incompetence of UEFA.

@SteMcgreal: But but but it’s the scousers fault. UEFA won’t be blamed or the police will they? Nope, just blame the Liverpool fans again

@TThrostle: Absolutely fucking obscene from the authorities here, hope these fans are ok!

@rudkin_abigail: This is disgusting. Share this far and wide. Liverpool fans that are clearly waiting patiently being tear gassed.

@PR_WhoRu: French authorities are an utter disgrace. In Marseille they stood and watched as Russian hooligans & Marseille ultras beat the absolute crap out of English fans, mostly old men & families sat down at restaurants, before joining in themselves with pepper sprays & batons.

@SiClancy: People paying thousands of pounds for a ticket and are being put into dangerous crushes, stopped from coming in and being pepper sprayed.

Related Topics
Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

More in English Premier League