UCL final chaos not caused by Liverpool fans, Paris deputy mayor says

Liverpool fans have been unfairly blamed for chaos that disrupted the Champions League final by bungling officials who failed to organise the showpiece event properly and are owed an apology, a Paris deputy mayor has said.

Richard Bouigue, deputy mayor of the 12th arrondissement which hosted a Liverpool fan zone ahead of Saturday's match, hit out in a letter to supporters in which he wrote: 'The time for official denial is over, the time for apologies must be imposed.'

Liverpool fans in Paris for the final - which they lost 1-0 to Real Madrid - complained of dangerous crushes and long delays getting into the Stade de France for the game, which ended with police firing tear gas and beating people with batons.

Gérald Darmanin, the French interior minister, and Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, the sport minister, subsequently laid blame at the feet of supporters - saying tens of thousands had turned up with fake tickets and attacked stewards when they were denied entry.

Mr Darmanin and Ms Oudéa-Castéra are due to face a grilling in the senate today, with law commission president François-Noël Buffet saying he intends to ask the pair to prove how they established that so many tickets were fake.

Ahead of the hearing, Mr Bouigue rubbished their excuses in a letter to fan group Spirit of Shankley, saying that almost 45,000 of those same fans had visited his section of the capital earlier in the day and had been 'friendly and respectful'.

Giving a glimpse of the organisational nightmare faced by officials after the match was moved from St Petersburg at the last minute due to sanctions on Russia, he said the 12th arrondissement was chosen to host fans 'late' and without any consultation.

'I can't hide the fact that many local residents and shopkeepers were worried,' he wrote. 'Stereotypes about English fans are hard to break. But you were able to reassure everyone, to bring a neighbourhood to life, to animate it with your songs, you enthusiasm and your good mood.

'I want to thank you sincerely for that.'

Revealing himself to be a Tottenham fan, he said he regretted not being a better host - insisting that locals, businesses and residents will improve 'next time.'

He added: 'That's why I would also now like to express my deep regret for the serious incidents that took place at the beginning of the evening at Stade de France...

'I bitterly regret that the Liverpool fans were singled out for criticism and that they were said to be solely responsible for the failure to organise the final...

'Fans are not schizophrenic: Dr Jekyll in the morning and Mr Hyde in the evening... The time for official denial is over, the time for apologies must be imposed.'

Describing scenes around the French national stadium as a 'fiasco' that was reminiscent of Hillsborough, he blamed 'dysfunctions in the organisation' and a 'lack of maintenance of order' for the chaos.

'At the end of this, you will allow me to keep the memory of this incredible Red tide that spread across our district, which proudly displayed its colours, and made its songs and hymns ring out. Thank you for sharing this moment with us,' he said.

Mr Bouigue spoke out after a source within the French Interior Ministry accused the government of launching a 'cover-up' by blaming Liverpool fans, in an attempt to shift criticism away from themselves.

The incident is particularly embarrassing because to comes ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2024 Olympics, which are both set to take place in Paris.

The official told investigative news outlet Mediapart: 'Accusing English supporters is just nonsense. Paris police headquarters should have recognised their mistakes.'

But instead the Paris Police Prefect, Didier Lallement, fabricated a figure of '70 per cent of Liverpool fans' arriving at the ground with fake tickets, the source claimed.

'The communication was initiated by the Prefecture, the Minister followed. It is a mistake,' said the source.

UEFA has now started an investigation after pictures of Liverpool fans being tear-gassed by police were published.

Having deployed 1,650 security and ticketing staff, 25% higher than a sold-out home France match, the FFF said that 110,000 people went to the stadium 'based on information collected from various public and private operators'.

The FFF concluded that around the stadium, there were '35,000 extra people in possession of counterfeit tickets or without tickets' and they 'caused public disorder by blocking the gates to the stadium and preventing some holders of real tickets from entering before the kick-off of the match scheduled for 9.00pm'.

A senior gendarmerie officer supported the Interior Ministry official, saying: 'These declarations mark the double bankruptcy of a ministry which not only does not know how to manage a sporting event of this magnitude but follows the declarations of a dangerous and uncontrolled Prefect.

'In other countries, it would have been worth the resignation of the Minister and the Prefect. But in France lies are added to policed violence to cover it up without this posing a problem.'

Other senior police officers said specialist riot squads trained to deal with urban disturbances should not have been at the final.

These so-called 'Brav' units wear helmets and body armour and are notorious for using tear gas and batons.

'Putting Brav intervention companies who have no experience in managing supporters for a sporting event of this magnitude is nonsense', said one of the sources.

He said they 'created the violence associated with the Yellow Yest' anti-government movement that brought rioting to the streets of major cities during President Emmanuel Macron's first administration.

Referring to prestige sports events due to be held in France over the next two years, the police source said: 'Fifteen months from the Rugby World Cup and twenty-four from the Olympics, this does not bode well.'

UEFA, the European football body, is launching an independent inquiry into the treatment of Liverpool fans at the weekend.

Critics have accused French ministers of scapegoating Liverpool fans to mask their own failings and the role of local thugs.

A Downing Street spokesman said: 'The footage from the Stade de France this weekend was deeply upsetting and concerning. We know many Liverpool fans travelled to Paris in good time...and we're hugely disappointed.'

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has demanded an apology over the treatment of the club's fans after

Werner, part of the US-based Fenway Sports Group that owns Liverpool, said in a leaked letter sent to French Sports Minister Amelie Oudea-Castera on Monday that he was left in 'utter disbelief' at her comments about the chaos.

Oudea-Castera initially blamed Liverpool for helping to cause the mayhem, telling a French radio station that the club failed to properly organise its supporters who went to Paris.