FEATURE | 2,000 Liverpool fans return to Paris, but have French authorities learnt from lessons and lies following the Stade de France fiasco? | OneFootball

Liverpool fans return to Paris three years after the Champions League final fiasco in 2022. For some, it’s too early to forget, let alone forgive. Get French Football News’s George Boxall takes a look at policing of supporters in France and asks whether anything has changed significantly since the events at the Stade de France.Wednesday evening will mark the first time that Liverpool supporters return to the French capital, three years after the fiasco – and the traumatic events for some – of the 2022 Champions League final at the Stade de France. Whilst this week’s Champions League Round of 16 tie will take place at the Parc des Princes as opposed to the home of the French national team, many Liverpool supporters were hesitant to make the trip to the capital. There will, however, be 2000 Reds travelling from England to the Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening.

Liverpool supporter groups met with the current head of the Paris Police prefecture, Laurent Nunez, this week to discuss the security plans surrounding the Premier League club’s supporters. “They seemed quite reassured to me,” said Nunez in an interview with RMC Sport. “It’s not the same context, nor the same location. The Stade de France is not the most suitable stadium for club matches. We are familiar with the Parc des Princes. I saw their concerns, they needed to be reassured.”

For some, however, a return to Paris has come too soon. The location and context of this week’s match is different, as various match and police officials have pointed out. But has France’s policing of football really changed for the better since the world was introduced to the horrors on display on 28th May 2022? Was this really just a Stade de France problem? The organisational failures, lies, and violence in the aftermath of that evening had left many in French football wondering how the French capital could host the subsequent Rugby World Cup and the Olympic Games in the following years.

“After what I went through, I strongly urge people not to visit Paris,” one Liverpool fan told Le Parisien earlier this week, still shaken by the traumatic events. “I was stuck at the turnstiles, then caught in the chaos of gang attacks and police crackdowns after the match. I had never seen anything like it.”

On the night of 28th May 2022, many supporters were denied entry to the Stade de France by security forces. With access blocked intentionally by French CRS riot police, many supporters recall being herded like animals into the stadium. “It was terrifying,” recalled one still-traumatised supporters to Le Parisien. “We weren’t treated like normal people.”

“Because the stewards barely spoke English, fans were given false info regarding the validity of their tickets,” said Get French Football News sub-editor Bastien Cheval on his experience that evening at the Stade de France. “We got to the Stade de France concourse, into the stadium and eventually to our seats. It was a strange atmosphere. There were people running around, risking their lives going over the fencing between the stands. I checked outside and I saw a sea of Liverpool fans still behind the gates with kick-off approaching. Communication was minimal and I could also see clouds of tear gas in the air.”

Riot police had started to tear gas Liverpool and Real supporters who had not accessed the match with valid tickets, whilst groups of locals had forced their way into the stadium. A multitude of these issues had caused a 37-minute delay to kick-off. The torment didn’t end after Real Madrid’s 1-0 victory either, with supporters being assaulted by groups of local gangs under the watch of French CRS officers.

“The worst part was after the game between the stadium and the station, people were mobbed in front of us and the police did nothing. It was the first time ever that I really did not feel safe in Paris,” Bastien said on the events following the final.

If the events of the night were bad enough, then came the wave of false claims from French interior minister Gérald Darminan which were then echoed by sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. This included a “massive, industrial and organised counterfeiting of tickets,” and that “30,000 to 40,000” English fans had travelled to the Stade de France “without tickets or with forged tickets”.

Yet in February 2023, it was revealed by an 151 page-long UEFA report that “the problem of counterfeit tickets has been exaggerated” and “that the relevant parties who affirmed these falsehoods, in particular the ministers, the police headquarters, UEFA and the FFF (French FA) acted in an irresponsible way” in order to “exonerate themselves from responsibility for failures.”

After eight months of investigation, the UEFA report found that there was responsibility that the French authorities should bear for endangering thousands of British and Spanish supporters alike. The report found that Real Madrid and Liverpool fans did a better job in sensibly ensuring their safety than the authorities who were actually meant to do so. What’s more was that their unwavering solidarity and ability to stay calm in a context so resolutely hostile to them commanded the panel’s admiration.

PARIS, FRANCE – MAY 28: Police spray tear gas at Liverpool fans outside the stadium as they queue prior to the UEFA Champions League final match between Liverpool FC and Real Madrid at Stade de France on May 28, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

Where has policing of football in France gone so wrong?

The final of the Champions League in Paris in 2022 highlighted to the world the frailties of French authorities when it came to policing and ensuring the safety of supporters. When the Rugby World Cup and the Olympic Games seemed to fly by with no incidents, it begged the question – why are football supporters in and outside of France treated so differently?

It’s an important question, but one that also relates to how domestic supporters are dealt with week-in and out in Ligue 1, Ligue 2, and the Championnat National. In France, many games are progressively being banned for away supporters by local police prefectures.

There are currently no official figures for the number of away fan bans imposed each year. But according to L’Équipe, “administrative bans have become the norm rather than the exception: over the last seven seasons, they have been used four times more than judicial bans, which allow supporters to defend themselves before a judge.” In recent years, at least 224 bans have been overturned by the administrative court; in 88% of cases, the cancellation of the away fan ban occurred after the ban and the match had already happened. This evasion of responsibility from authorities has even, in some instances, caused more dangerous situations and a lack of consultation with supporters before games.

Only a week and-a-half ago, Racing Club de Lens supporters staged a walkout during their match against FC Nantes after claims that French CRS riot officers used tear gas and charged families, women, and children. Lens’ main ultra group Red Tigers published a statement in which they explained that police had turned up late to escort Lens supporters, and “When family-oriented supporters sought to enter the stadium, the response from law enforcement was to use tear gas and batons against families, women, and children.” This was at a Ligue 1 match classed in the lowest risk category possible (one out of five possible).

French CRS officers in France get it wrong where the management of football fans has had relative recent success in English football. They generally favour blocking access, creating the kinds of choke points that we saw during the 2022 Champions League final. With a provocative stance and mindset, officers are generally wearing full riot gear and helmets in situations that aren’t required for it – which entices a sense of antagonism for supporter groups. What’s more is a significant lack of time management and awareness, resorting to violence and tear gas at the first sign of trouble. These are all polar opposites of more successful approaches that exist elsewhere, especially in the United Kingdom and Germany.

In a recent report from France’s National Police Division for the Fight against Hooliganism (DNLH), there seemed to be an awareness of this shortcoming when it comes to managing supporters in France. “Managing football matches solely from the perspective of public order has its limitations. Other avenues (integrated approach to security, development of prevention and dialogue, contractualisation of relations with supporters) must be explored in order to limit incidents and violence while preserving civil liberties.”

PARIS, FRANCE – APRIL 10: Members of the Republican Security Corps are seen patrolling outside the stadium prior to the UEFA Champions League quarter-final first leg match between Paris Saint-Germain and FC Barcelona at Parc des Princes on April 10, 2024 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

‘Football has not been a truly legitimate political issue in France’

So why has the management of supporters in France been so incoherent and repressive at times? Sociologist Nicolas Hourcade, an expert in the study of French football supporters and hooliganism in France, revealed how the approach differs in La Hexagone than neighbouring European countries.

“Historically, football has not been a truly legitimate political issue in France, unlike in England or Germany, for example. In the 1990s, faced with significant violence and racism in stadiums, these two countries implemented coherent policies to manage the problem,” said Hourcade in an interview in 2023 with Ouest France. “In England, there was a very strong crackdown on hooligans, and a complete transformation of football: a commercialisation of football, combined with police measures, has ensured that the situation around first and second division clubs has calmed down for the long term.”

“In Germany, the logic is slightly different. It is a question of combining targeted repression of violent supporters and social prevention with the implementation of a set of measures to prevent violence, as well as encouraging the development of groups of festive supporters. The fans have always remained standing, and there have always been acceptable ticket prices behind the goals. These two policies are different, but in both cases, there is an overall structure.”

There has been little sign, so far, of a major re-think of the way that football supporters are policed in France. An event like the Champions League final in 2022 should have spurred politicians into action. Yet, the shifting of blame onto Liverpool fans created a lack of accountability among those responsible, who have yet to this date not even issued an apology over their exaggerated false claims.

Whilst a sense of hubris has engulfed the French state after a perceived success of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it seems the fundamental Policing issues plaguing supporters in the domestic game have still not been stamped out. It ultimately means that the risk of another fiasco like the events of 28th May 2022, is still likely to repeat itself again on French soil in the future.GFFN | George Boxall