Two days later, chaotic scenes around the Stade de France, jostling, attempted intrusion by individuals without a ticket or supporters in shock at an intervention by the police or victims of theft, the new Minister for Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, must manage her first crisis.
«With the Minister of the Interior, we deplore the incidents that marred the evening of the Champions League on Saturday evening at the Stade de France and regret that some supporters with tickets were unable to attend the match,» he said. she explained in a statement released on Sunday.
Alongside the Minister of Sports, will be present the organizers of the final – won by Real Madrid (1-0) against Liverpool -, UEFA and the French Football Federation, as well as representatives of the Stade de France, the Paris Police Headquarters, the Seine-Saint-Denis Prefecture and the town hall of Saint-Denis, the municipality where the stadium is located.
– «Malfunctions» –
«The priority is now to identify very precisely the malfunctions (…) in order to learn all the lessons to prevent such incidents from happening again for our future major international sporting events», insisted the Ministry of Sports and Games. Olympics.
Even if there were no serious injuries, the questions abound.
How was the expected celebration of European football spoiled and could have turned into a tragedy when nearly 7,000 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were mobilized, not to mention the private security guards? Why was the pre-screening system 200 meters from the stadium quickly overwhelmed by the influx of Liverpool supporters and created bottlenecks? How did gangs of young people find themselves in a position to force their way into the compound?
The questions also come from England, where the supporters, back from Paris, the Liverpool club, the local authorities, like the mayor of the city «disgusted by the calamitous management and the brutal treatment», and national, do not take off. .
– Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry –
What goes particularly badly – while the Liverpool police, present around the Stade de France, judged that the «vast majority» of English supporters «behaved in an exemplary manner» – is the setting in cause from Saturday evening by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, of «thousands of British supporters without tickets or with fake tickets who forced entry».
In a report submitted to the French Minister of the Interior on Sunday, the prefect of police of Paris, Didier Lallement, estimates the number of spectators who showed up «probably between 30,000 and 40,000 people beyond the 80,000 eligible in the stadium» .
He also decided to take legal action for a «massive counterfeit fraud».
Whatever the outcome of the meeting at the Ministry of Sports, the Stade de France fiasco should have consequences.
Senator Les Républicains (right) Michel Savin, president of the study group for sports practices and major sporting events, has already announced that he will ask for the opening of a parliamentary commission of inquiry. “400 million viewers witnessed what I consider to be a humiliation for our country which is preparing to host the Rugby World Cup, then the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” he regretted.