Ian Byrne has written to President Emmanuel Macron calling for a formal apology after a French Senate report said Liverpool fans were not to blame for the chaos at Champions League final at Stade de France in May.
English fans scapegoated for the fiasco surrounding the Champions League final to "divert attention" from organisational failures, a scathing French Senate report says.
Steve Rotheram, appearing on a vidiolink before a French Senate hearing into the chaos at the Stade de France on May 28th where he was himself present, said some police officers appeared to be 'looking to find a problem' with Liverpool supporters, adding that 'the day gradually transformed from a dream into a nightmare', and said he was shocked to hear that CCTV footage of the events was now destroyed.
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin on Monday said the potentially dangerous bottleneck of tens of thousands of Liverpool fans on Saturday trying to enter the Stade de France for the Champions League cup final of their team against Real Madrid was due to 'industrial scale' ticket fraud, which he said 'only seems to happen with certain English clubs'.
The showcase event of European football, the final of the Champions League, was marred by numerous incidents at the Stade de France in the northern suburbs of Paris on Saturday night. Hundreds of Liverpool fans were 'kettled', blocked at the entrance to the stadium, and then tear or pepper gassed by police officers before the club's match with Real Madrid. As Ilyes Ramdani writes in this opinion article, this failure comes on the back of years spent by the French public authorities pursuing a repressive, incompetent and often violent approach to maintaining order at public events.
The trial relating to the deadly wave of terror attacks that struck Paris on November 13th 2015 gets under way this Wednesday September 8th. During a hearing scheduled to last nine months, the 20 defendants will be tried over their role in attacks that left 130 dead, hundreds more wounded and many grieving families. Matthieu Suc sets the scene for a trial that is exceptional both in its scale and nature.
The terrorist attack in Paris and at the Stade de France on Friday November 13th targeted the whole of society; our society, our France, a France made up of diversity, plurality, of people coming together and mixing, argues Mediapart's editor-in-chief, Edwy Plenel. It is that open society that the terror wants to shut down, to silence through fear, to make disappear through horror. And it is this society, he says, that we must defend because it is our most secure and lasting protection against terrorism.
Directeur de la publication : Edwy Plenel
Direction éditoriale : Stéphane Alliès et Carine Fouteau
Le journal MEDIAPART est édité par la Société Editrice de Mediapart (SAS).
Durée de la société : quatre-vingt-dix-neuf ans à compter du 24 octobre 2007.
Actionnaires directs et indirects : Société pour l’Indépendance de Mediapart, Fonds pour une Presse Libre, Association pour le droit de savoir
Rédaction et administration : 127 avenue Ledru-Rollin, 75011 Paris
Courriel : contact@mediapart.fr
Téléphone : + 33 (0) 1 44 68 99 08
Propriétaire, éditeur, imprimeur : Société Editrice de Mediapart
Abonnement : pour toute information, question ou conseil, le service abonnés de Mediapart peut être contacté par courriel à l’adresse : serviceabonnement@mediapart.fr ou par courrier à l'adresse : Service abonnés Mediapart, 11 place Charles de Gaulle 86000 Poitiers. Vous pouvez également adresser vos courriers à Société Editrice de Mediapart, 127 avenue Ledru-Rollin, 75011 Paris.