Fan violence outside stadium delays Champions League’s final kickoff

PARIS: Kickoff in the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid was delayed by 15 minutes on Saturday amid fan violence outside the Stade de France in Paris. There have been sporadic instances of soccer fans, apparently without tickets, breaking through security and attempting to get into the stadium.

The Associated Press saw two fans — one was wearing Liverpool attire — wrestled to the ground by stewards and bundled out of the gates. Another fan evaded stewards and was seen sprinting through the concourse and into the bottom level of the stadium.

Footage on social media showed fans climbing over fences. There were long lines of Liverpool fans still outside the stadium when there was 40 minutes to kickoff.

About 15 minutes before the scheduled kickoff of 1900 GMT (9 p.m. local time), an announcement was made that there would be a delay because of the late arrival of fans to the stadium.