“This week” work began on an independent report on the events surrounding the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool, the results of which will be summed up in September.
That’s according to one of the EU’s top game officials, UEFA, who lied during Tuesday’s Senate hearing on French numbers regarding the number of counterfeit tickets.
“Everyone should be questioned in the course of the investigation that began this week,” said Martin Kalin, general manager of UEFA Events, the UEFA subsidiary responsible for the commercial activities of events organized by the continental football organization.
He told a French Senate committee tasked with continuing to investigate what happened before and during the match Real Madrid won 1-0 on May 28: “We expected the investigation to take at least two or three hours. months. With it starting now we can say (what are its results) It will be released around September.
The final match was marred by scenes of chaos as Liverpool fans struggled to get into the stadium to attend the match, raising questions about the French capital’s ability to host the 2024 Olympics.
A report released by the French government on the 10th of this month said a series of “failures” by the authorities caused chaos in the Champions League final and deplored the police response to the events, which caused “serious damage to France’s image”.
Pressure on France escalated after the local football federation told the Senate that Stade de France CCTV footage had been destroyed without a court order in accordance with French law.
UEFA entrusted an internal investigation to the former Minister of Education, Youth and Sports of Portugal, Thiago Brandão Rodrigues.
In front of senators, Kalin returned to his role as UEFA in this final on Tuesday as the European Champions League’s governing body deals with the issue of ticket sales, among other things, which has become a source of controversy as French authorities said counterfeit tickets have led to chaos outside the stadium .
Kalin said paper tickets, which are easy to forge, were less suitable for such an event than approved e-tickets, but he added that “paper tickets were not the only reason for creating chaos in front of the stadium entrances.”
He explained: “There are several reasons: the transport strike (that day), the poor reaction of the hosts and law enforcement, there were offenders (in the ocean, which led to looting and pickpocketing), a large influx in front of the stadium if there were no ticket holders or counterfeit ticket holders.
Along the way, Kalin refuted a claim by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan about a highly exaggerated number of fake tickets in possession of Liverpool fans, estimated at “between 30,000 and 40,000”, stating that: “I reached the turnstiles (at the entrances to the stadium) about 2600 tickets. Fake. But many fake tickets never made it to the turnstiles… How much? We don’t know, we couldn’t really Check.”
He continued: “We do not believe this is the same number that was mentioned in France in the early days (after the final), which was estimated between 30 and 40 thousand.”
The Senate will hear from Liverpool and Real Madrid fans later on Tuesday.
Source: AFP