Liverpool fans to blame for Champions League final disruption - French sports minister

France's sports minister said on Monday that Liverpool fans without valid tickets were responsible for the initial crowd problems at the Champions League final, with the problem then exacerbated by local youths trying to force their way in to the game.

The crowd trouble at the match in Paris has become a political issue ahead of French parliamentary elections in mid-June, and the French government hosted an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss the crowd trouble.

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«What we really have to bear in mind is that what happened first of all was this mass gathering of British supporters of the Liverpool club, without tickets, or with fake tickets,» French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera told French radio RTL before the meeting.

«When there are that many people by the entrance to the stadium, there will be people trying to force their way in through the doors of the Stade de France, and a certain number of youths from the nearby area who were present tried to get in by mixing in with the crowd.»

The match had to be delayed by 35 minutes after police tried to hold back people attempting to force their way into the national stadium without tickets, while some ticket holders complained that they were not let in.

More than 100 people were arrested after the crowd trouble, French interior minister Gerald Darmanin said.

Darmanin said there were 29 arrests around and inside the Stade de France stadium, of which half he said were «British citizens», and a further 77 arrests in the surrounding Seine Saint Denis Paris suburb,