‘We weren’t treated like normal people’ – Liverpool supporters hesitant over PSG Champions League trip three years on from 2022 fiasco | OneFootball

In an interview with Le Parisien, several Liverpool supporters expressed their fear of travelling to Paris next week for the Champions League Round of 16 first leg tie against Paris Saint-Germain. Marked for life by the traumatic experience of the Paris 2022 final of the Champions League at the Stade de France, many Reds have decided not to make the trip to the Parc des Princes next Wednesday. “After what I went through, I strongly urge people not to visit Paris,” one Liverpool fan told Le Parisien, 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.”The organisational failures, lies, and violence in the aftermath of the event had traumatised many in the Liverpool fanbase. 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 supporter. “We weren’t treated like normal people.”The French authorities had failed to recognise their failures in the aftermath of the Champions League final. In February 2023, the 151 page-long UEFA review strongly affirmed the existence of negligence displayed by the French public authorities. The fruits of an 8-month long process demonstrates 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 being paid to do so. Furthermore, their unwavering solidarity and ability to discipline themselves in a context so resolutely hostile to them commanded the panel’s admiration. The UEFA review on the events of May 28th found no trace of the “massive and industrial ticket fraud” denounced by France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. The report states 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.” GFFN | George Boxall