“It is obvious that things could have been better organized” during the Champions League final enamelled on Saturday by numerous incidents at the Stade de France, admitted Wednesday the French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, heard by a committee of the Senate.
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“It is obvious that this celebration of sport has been ruined,” he added. “And we very sincerely regret the sometimes unacceptable excesses that have taken place,” said the minister, under fire from critics after his statements on the number of counterfeit tickets at the entrance to the stadium.
“This is the event that has mobilized the most police and gendarmes since I became Minister of the Interior,” said Mr. Darmanin, rejecting any criticism of the number of police present: ” there were more than enough police personnel”.
“Several tickets were duplicated hundreds of times,” he also said, referring to the case of a ticket duplicated “744 times”.
The Minister of the Interior reaffirmed that “110,000 people” showed up “in and around the Stade de France”, or “35,000” more than the expected gauge, corresponding according to him to supporters with falsified tickets or without ticket.
Gérald Darmanin and French Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra have incriminated British supporters since Saturday evening, believing that they are largely responsible for the incidents, with a “massive, industrial and organized fraud of counterfeit tickets”, a much criticized argument, in England as in France.
This situation has, according to the authorities, led near the Stade de France to massive congestion, overflows and the intervention of the police.
In this regard, Gérald Darmanin “very sincerely apologized” to Liverpool supporters for “the great damage, especially to children” caused by tear gas, used “disproportionately”, assuring that “sanctions will be taken “.
“British and Spanish citizens will be able to file a complaint in their country from Monday” and they will also be able to seize the General Inspectorate of the French National Police (IGPN), the police force in France, indicated Mr. Darmanin.
“I personally saw two facts, where obviously public order and the use of tear gas were contrary to the rules of employment,” he said again, about incidents filmed and broadcast on the networks. social.
Gérald Darmanin also announced that he had asked the interministerial delegate for the Olympic Games, Michel Cadot, to consider “different rules” than that of dispersion with tear gas in the event of “exceptional sporting events”, considering that these means do not were not “adequate”.
The minister’s entourage clarified that “two referrals” to the police have already been made by “citizens”.
