Uefa pre-prepared Champions League final statement blaming ‘late’ fans

Uefa’s statement apparently blaming Liverpool supporters for causing the delay to the start of the Champions League final in Paris was pre-prepared a considerable time before the day of the match, the Guardian has learned. The statement, put up on the big screen at the Stade de France, announced that a delay to the scheduled 9pm kick-off of the final between Liverpool and Real Madrid had been caused by “late arrival of fans”.

The statement incensed Liverpool supporters, thousands of whom were still stuck in chaotic queues outside the stadium despite having arrived three or more hours before 9pm. Approximately 15,000 Liverpool supporters had been held up in a dangerous, bottleneck queue at a perimeter ticket checkpoint, then denied access to the stadium at turnstiles closed by stewards and police.

As shown on the Guardian’s visual investigation, Paris police had directed Liverpool supporters to a ticket checkpoint using an alternative route that had been a known hazard since 2016, which involved thousands of people being funnelled through a narrow subway under the A1 motorway. A risk of crushing developed in the queue there and at turnstiles that were closed for long periods. Many Liverpool supporters, who had paid up to £600 to Uefa for tickets, also suffered brutal riot policing, including pepper spray and teargas, and attacks by local French men.

The statement blaming late arrival of fans was decided on in the planning stages of the match, as the one likely to be used in the event of kick-off having to be delayed, the Guardian understands. At the end of the match Uefa made a second statement, blaming “thousands of fans” at the Liverpool end with “fake tickets” for the kick-off delay.

For many Liverpool supporters the