Liverpool blames French authorities for “deflecting responsibilities”

Liverpool CEO Billy Hogan has accused French authorities of attempting to “deflect blame” for the chaotic scenes that followed the Champions League final in Paris.

UEFA has established an independent inquiry into Saturday’s events outside the Stade de France, which saw supporters pushed into overcrowded hallways and police use tear gas and pepper spray on them.

The match, in which Real Madrid won 1-0, was delayed by 36 minutes to give fans enough time to enter the stadium.

The mayhem was blamed on “industrial-scale” fraud of 30,000 to 40,000 fake tickets, according to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

That story, however, has been fiercely criticized by Liverpool fans, who have pointed to a series of organizational flaws around the stadium as well as police brutality.

Liverpool chairman Tom Werner has sought an apology from Amelie Oudea-Castera, France’s sports minister.

Oudea-Castera first blamed Liverpool for the chaos, telling a French radio station that the team failed to properly manage its fans who traveled to Paris.

“We just feel that everyone should be focused on getting the investigation right and less about making inflammatory comments that attempt to deflect responsibility for what happened on Saturday night,” Hogan told the Liverpool website.

“We should know all the facts to make sure that the scenes that we’ve all seen – absolutely disgraceful – from Saturday don’t ever happen again.”

The Liverpool squad’s family and friends were caught up in the chaos outside the stadium.

Left-back Andy Robertson stated that a friend to whom he had given a club ticket was denied entrance and accused of holding a fake ticket.

The wife of Thiago Alcantara, Julia Vigas, posted on Instagram: “Due to a lack of organization and security, there were so many scary moments.”

Vigas added: “Something has to be done, these kind of things cannot happen in any kind of event and we ask for responsibility. It could have been much worse.”

UEFA initially blamed the problems on late arrivals of fans before making a statement blaming counterfeit tickets.

“To say our fans didn’t turn up on time is crazy,” added Hogan.

“My colleagues across the club, our ownership and I, we all saw it with our own eyes. We were outside the ground, on the ground, in those crowds and from everything I saw, our fans arrived early and they were queueing as directed by authorities.”

Liverpool has begun accumulating its own evidence, with fans and other attendees urged to record their impressions through a feedback form on their website.

Fans have compared the perilous situations outside the stadium to the Hillsborough incident in 1989, which killed 97 Liverpool fans in a crush.

UEFA said their own independent review, led by Portugal’s Dr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues “will examine decision making, responsibility and behaviors of all entities involved in the final.”

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