A damning French Senate report says that the fiasco surrounding the Champions League final was unfairly blamed on the fans.

The senate, the upper house of the French parliament, published its findings on Wednesday, 46 days after the showpiece event at the Stade de France which was overshadowed by crowd problems.

The Reds fans were sprayed with tear gas and the match was delayed for more than half an hour due to overcrowding in the stadium.

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Liverpool supporters show their tickets as they struggle to get into the Champions League final
Sky Sports News' chief reporter Kaveh Solhekol says the events outside the Stade de France do not tally with what French interior minister Gerald Darmanin considered fraud

In the days and hours leading up to the game, a chain of events and malfunction caused the chaos.

The systems put in place had major flaws with regards to the intelligence, the transport routes for supporters, and the lack of communication.

Problems arose even after the execution. The crisis scenarios did not show enough flexibility in the face of so many unforeseen events.

According to the report's co-chairman, a chain of administrative errors allowed everyone involved in the investigation to feel that someone else was responsible.

There are a lot of decisions to be made to make sure this doesn't happen again at the Rugby World Cup or the Olympics, he said.

The minister of the interior has tried to distract attention from the state's inability to adequately manage the crowd by blaming fans of the other team.

There was a need to communicate clearly about transporting the fans from the train station to the stadium but this didn't happen.

Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold reacts at the end of the Champions League final soccer match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Saint Denis near Paris, Saturday, May 28, 2022. Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 1-0. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)
Image: Liverpool's Trent Alexander-Arnold reacts at the end of the Champions League final soccer match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Saint Denis near Paris, Saturday, May 28, 2022. Real Madrid defeated Liverpool 1-0. (AP Photo/

The attractiveness of the area around the Stade de France should be improved so that people will arrive early.

The recommendation that we are making is that the authorities' view of football supporters should be changed.

What happened at the Champions League final?

There were serious problems surrounding the stadium when the Reds and Real Madrid played there.

Fans were tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed by police because of access issues.

They did not tell the German about the trouble until after it had happened.

French senators demanded last month that the state recognize responsibility for the chaos that occurred outside the national stadium.

They questioned why the video of the police pepper spraying fans and families was not turned over to investigators.

The chair of the disabled supporters association gave an account of what happened on the day of the final.

Morris said it was surprising that there wasn't a single police officer at the station.

We went to a Mcdonald's for three hours. I have never seen so many fans pickpocketed in one day. It was completely out of place. We were able to see how this day was going.

The soft ticket check area was not fit for purpose. People are walking in. I had a conversation with a police officer from the other side of the country and he was very concerned about what was happening.

It was disorganized. There was no organization, no police presence and no deterrent.

Real Madrid

I didn't care about the game because I was getting text messages from people at the club and our disabled supporters about the distress that was going on outside. We could have won by a bigger margin.

I got a message telling me not to leave at half-time and that it was not safe. The steward wouldn't open the gate after we left the ground. He opened the gate because there were still a lot of people trying to get in.

The underground station is called La Plaine. There were a lot of police there. Hundreds of locals to our right attacked us immediately after we left the underpass. I'm in a wheelchair and I was afraid.

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Liverpool fans
Paris police chief Didier Lallement issues an apology to the Liverpool fans who were at the Champions League final after some were tear gassed outside the Stade de France

There were bottles and knives in the room. The police tear-gassed us when we arrived at the train station. No matter how they explain it, I won't understand it.

There was a little girl with her dad on the platform in the accessible lift. She was traumatised and her eyes were red. She went to Paris to watch a festival of football and she won't be able to go to a football match or even trust the authorities. It was pointless and horrible.

'This is not just about Liverpool fans, it's about all football supporters'

John Gibbons spoke about the campaign against the treatment on Sky Sports News.

He said that he hoped to hear of more accountability. It looks like they're not taking any responsibility for the quotes we've been getting from them.

The fans have been put in the same position as the French government ministers. I want to make sure football fans don't have to worry about what happened.

It's not about the fans of the other team, it's about the fans of the other team feeling they can celebrate. It was in Madrid and should have been in Paris.

Fans who have spent a lot of money to be there are treated better and are safer, and that's what you want guarantees for.

The result was irrelevant after what we'd been through.