French minister blames Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool for contributing to Champions League final chaos

The French interior minister Gerald Darmanin has accused Jurgen Klopp of contributing to the chaos involving Liverpool supporters during the Champions League final at the Stade de France on Saturday evening.

The match was delayed by 36 minutes after thousands of Liverpool supporters were prevented from entering the stadium, despite arriving hours in advance.

French police have been heavily criticised for the use of tear gas on fans, some of whom included children, who posed no threat as they waited to enter their gate outside the ground.

However, Darmanin has blamed ‘fraud at an industrial level’ for the situation, claiming 70 per cent of tickets that were checked at the pre-filtering stage at the Stade de France were fake.

He said during a press conference on Monday that ‘30,000 to 40,000 Liverpool supporters found themselves at the Stade de France either with fake tickets or without a ticket’.

Darmanin also suggested that Liverpool’s decision to insist on paper tickets for supporters contributed to the counterfeiting and criticised Klopp for urging fans earlier this month to travel to Paris even if they didn’t have a ticket for the game.

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‘The tickets are normally electronic, they were made in paper at the request of Liverpool. The 22,000 English tickets were all paper, which contributed to massive and industrial fraud,’ Darmanin said.

‘Comparisons with the Olympics and the Rugby World Cup seems to me quite disproportionate, knowing that it’s obviously only in football with certain English clubs that these events happen.

‘I would remind you that France has organised a great many rugby matches and very high-level