Devastating for the image of the country organizing the 2023 Rugby World Cup and the 2024 Olympics. The mess, the frauds, a few indiscriminate police gassings and the serial attacks by thugs who are difficult to assimilate to the British, last Saturday, at the Stade de France, during the Champions League final between Real and Liverpool, forced the executive to explain themselves.
In his first report to the Minister of the Interior, the very day after the events, the prefect of police of Paris, Didier Lallement, considered that
"the system put in place ensured the essentials: allowing the smooth running of the match and guaranteeing the safety of the festivities without deaths or serious injuries”
.
He also did not forget to point out the behavior of
"300 to 400 young people from sensitive areas of Seine-Saint-Denis"
.
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Incidents at the Stade de France: the prefect Lallement takes legal action for “massive fraud with counterfeit tickets”
During his press conference on Monday with his new colleague from Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, Gérald Darmanin, the host of Beauvau, was forced to recognize it:
“No, there is no reason to “Be proud, of course, of what we saw on Saturday evening”
, even if he paid tribute to the work of the police.
With some exceptions.
Prefect Lallement
"made difficult decisions, and it was these decisions that saved the lives of some supporters
," said the minister
.
In particular the fact of having lifted the pre-filters around the stadium, to avoid crushing in the public.
We were probably a little less prepared against a delinquency that took advantage of the chaos
Gerald Darmanin
The minister will meet on Wednesday, he said, the police services and the prefect of police
“on the specific question of delinquency around the football match so that it does not start again”
.
Because, he admitted, beyond the classic question of hooliganism,
“we were probably a little less prepared against a delinquency that took advantage of the chaos”
.
Clearly: the acts of predation by French or foreigners in the Paris region who rot, on a regular basis, however, large gatherings.
Has there been any laxity in the anticipation and vigilance of the authorities?
The government itself, part of the workforce - and not the least - was campaigning in the provinces for the legislative elections this weekend, has it sinned by excess of confidence?
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Gilles-William Goldnadel: “Stade de France: these disturbing truths that we seek to conceal”
One thing is certain: the crisis forces us to reform the ranks by learning the lessons of the fiasco.
Gérald Darmanin had immediately indicated the track of the English supporters to explain the drifts.
What was sometimes reproached to him, in view of the images which have turned on the social networks.
But it does not vary on the analysis.
According to him, there would have been, Saturday evening,
"between 30,000 and 40,000 British supporters without tickets or with falsified tickets"
around the Stade de France, a large part of whom would have sought to enter the stadium.
"Before the first screening, 70% of British supporters had counterfeit tickets and, after this first screening, another 15% of people who passed it had fake tickets",
said the minister, referring to
"massive fraud , organized and industrial"
which would be the
"root evil"
behind Saturday's incidents.
To which are added, he acknowledges, the difficulties linked to the transport by RER of many supporters.
The RER B has become a nightmare for all users of this line, and has been for months.
Ticket Inquiry
But whether the tickets are true or false, how does that clear those who, in principle, have the mission of preventing supporters, who come with their families, from being beaten up and robbed?
Of the 29 arrests that occurred inside the stadium, half concerned British citizens, insisted Gérald Darmanin to support his story.
Monday evening, on the set of "20 Hours" of TF1, he indicated that there had been 52 other arrests, independently of the intrusions into the stadium, including 40 French and 12 foreigners, mostly North Africans.
For what legal outcome?
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For her part, the Minister of Sports indicated that 2,700 valid tickets were not activated that evening – which corresponds to as many supporters who could not attend the meeting.
She asked UEFA to find compensation as soon as possible.
She also maintained that many supporters were provided with tickets
"which extraordinarily resemble normal tickets"
and asked UEFA
"for a specific investigation"
into this fraud, in addition to the referral to the Bobigny prosecutor.
Supporter safety, a major issue
A
“full restitution”
of the events will be made within ten days by the Interministerial Delegation for the Management of Sporting Events (Diges).
The minister spoke of her desire to
“strengthen the management”
of these major events.
The host of Beauvau declared, for his part, that it was necessary to proscribe in the future the paper tickets, too easily falsifiable.
"The rubbish,
he explained,
and which shows that, without doubt, one of the great difficulties is on the British side, is that the tickets are normally electronic and, at the request of the club of Liverpool, the tickets, UEFA confirmed to us, were made out of paper.”
According to him,
"the 22,000 English banknotes were all in paper, which undoubtedly contributed to the possibility of a massive fraud"
, of which
"we think, we only think,
he added
, that it comes actually on the other side of the Channel
.
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Liverpool-Real Madrid: were the incidents at the Stade de France caused by "thousands of British supporters" as Darmanin claims?
Beyond the management of flows, the safety of the simple supporter, wherever he comes from, will be one of the major challenges of the next major events hosted by Paris.
The prefect of police had twelve units of mobile forces to manage the Stade de France alone on Saturday.
He now recommends eighteen.
Better information upstream would also not be useless.