‘Industrial level’ fraud at Champions League final, French minister claims

05/30/2022

Amelie Oudea-Castera, France’s Sports Minister, continued to claim fraud and said there were thousands of fake tickets.

“The major point is to try to understand precisely what happened during this massive fraud,” she said. “There are witnesses and the figures corroborate this, 30,000-40,000 people without tickets or with fake tickets and we saw some fake tickets.

“We can see they are professional and that’s meant some controls didn’t notice it. We want there to be a very detailed, in-depth inquiry with Uefa. We are waiting for the rapid setting off of this inquiry.”

British MPs called for an investigation amid condemnation of the way the Premier League club’s supporters were treated.

Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, attended the match in Paris and said he had never witnessed such scenes since the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. He has written to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with a list of seven demands, including a formal probe and apologies, aimed at Uefa and the French authorities.

In his letter, he said: “The French authorities and Uefa are quite simply covering their own backs with this narrative.

“As a Liverpool fan, I was in Paris for the match and I can honestly say that the situation outside the ground was one of the most horrendous experiences of my life – and as a Hillsborough survivor, I do not make this comment lightly.”

Merseyside Police observers described the behaviour of the vast majority of supporters as “exemplary”, while their counterparts from the Paris prefecture said some had “employed strong force” in a bid to get into the stadium.

Liverpool, who lost 1-0 to Real Madrid, have “officially requested a formal investigation into the causes of these unacceptable issues”, while CEO Billy Hogan told LFCTV the treatment of fans was “absolutely unacceptable” and that “people’s safety was put at risk”.

Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries said: “I urge Uefa to launch a formal investigation into what went wrong and why, in co-ordination with stadium staff, the French police, the French football federation, Merseyside Police and Liverpool Football Club.

‘Industrial level’ fraud at Champions League final, French minister claims

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