Champions League final: France blames “massive’ ticket fraud as policing row rages

France has hit out at what it says was “industrial-scale” ticket fraud at Saturday’s Champions League final amid a row over the game’s policing.

Ministers acknowledged difficulties in managing crowds at the final in Paris, but say organised fraud was the root cause of the problems.

Liverpool ticket-holders were seen waiting in huge queues, with French police later using tear gas on crowds.

The treatment of fans was “an absolute disgrace,” one Liverpool fan said.

Tom Whitehurst said he had to get his disabled son “out of the way” after they were pepper-sprayed.

“[Fans] were indiscriminately pepper-sprayed and there were people with tickets, who arrived two-and-a-half hours early, who were queuing up and they were charged at by riot police with shields.”

Another supporter, Michael Carter, told the BBC people further back in the queue “were lifting each other up and over the walls because they were being crushed”.

The BBC’s sports journalist Nick Parrott, who was in Paris, said “it was the most petrifying experience I’ve ever had at a football match”. He tweeted that locals were “trying to force their way in leading to security closing the gates and keeping out legitimate fans with tickets”.

Amid a chorus of criticism from the UK, the French sports ministry has been meeting Europe’s football governing body Uefa, the French Football Association and stadium officials and police to “draw lessons” from the event.

France’s interior and sports ministers have been pointing blame for the chaos at fans with fake tickets and local youths trying to force their way into the stadium.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin said “massive, industrial-scale” ticket fraud had caused Liverpool fans to turn up en masse, and said that of about 30 arrests made at the Stade de France “more than half concerned British citizens”. He stated that there had been 30,000 to 40,000 Liverpool fans with fake tickets or without tickets outside the stadium.

Mr Darmanin also defended the police’s actions, stating that “the decisions taken prevented deaths or serious injury”.

Speaking earlier on French radio, sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said there were “no problems” regarding Real supporters and the Spanish side had controlled their travelling fans better than Liverpool.

But a spokesperson for France’s independent police commissioner’s union (SICP), Mathieu Valet, told the BBC’s Newshour that “supporters without tickets or with fake tickets… were not the main problem.”

“It’s clear that we needed more police – we didn’t have enough on the ground,” he added.

A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson described footage from the Stade de France at the weekend as “deeply upsetting and concerning” and called for a full investigation.

Uefa initially blamed the “late arrival” of fans for the problems.

But Merseyside police, who are responsible for policing in Liverpool and were present in Paris, said the vast majority of Liverpool fans arrived early at the turnstiles and behaved in an “exemplary manner”.

Saturday’s TV footage showed young men who did not appear to be wearing red Liverpool shirts jumping the stadium gates and then running away from security.

Liverpool fans spoke of long queues building up hours before the match started, and the final was delayed by 35 minutes by the trouble outside the stadium.

The chaos continued after the match ended. One Real Madrid supporter, Antonio Castaño, told the BBC there were “organised groups robbing people, harassing them, breaking car windows, it was absolute chaos.

“I’ve been to games in Liverpool, Munich, Milan, London, Cardiff, to Russia. I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. “There weren’t enough police, there weren’t enough resources and there wasn’t enough respect for the fans. We were left high and dry, both the Spanish fans and the English ones.”

Liverpool later lost the match against Spain’s Real Madrid 1-0.

Liverpool player Andy Robertson said the organisation of the final was a “shambles”, adding that he had given a genuine ticket to a friend who was told it was fake and denied entry to the game.

Liverpool legend Alan Kennedy, who scored the winner when his team beat Real Madrid to win the 1981 European Cup final in Paris, also had a distressing experience outside the Stade de France. The 67-year-old was helped over a security fence by supporters to escape the crowd.

Liverpool Mayor Joanne Anderson, who attended the final, described the French police actions as “absolutely disgusting”.

Speaking to the BBC, Ms Anderson said: “When the game was delayed and I could see lots of Liverpool seats were empty – so knowing that people with tickets hadn’t been able to get in, I went to walk around the ground to see what was going on.

“Seeing all the Liverpool fans bottlenecked together, shouting at officials, or shouting at stewards, and then the riot police just came over and pepper sprayed them.”

The chaotic scenes have become a political embarrassment in France, which is due to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Olympic Games. (BBC)