Before the day of the match, UEFA prepared a statement in which it blamed the delays in the start of the 2022 Champions League final for the “late arrival of the fans”.
The final at the Stade de France on May 28 is now best known not for the football on the pitch but for the chaos outside the stadium.
Thousands of Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters were pushed through dangerous corridors, held outside entrances and eventually tear-gassed by police and attacked by local gangs.
It was a terrifying ordeal for those involved, only made worse by UEFA and French officials using them as scapegoats during and after the events that took place.
The final itself was delayed by 36 minutes, with players and staff initially unaware of the trouble unfolding just hundreds of meters away, including their own family and friends.
A statement was broadcast on the giant screens inside the Stade de France which read: “Due to the late arrival of the fans, the match has been delayed.”
The audacity to blame the fans for being late when, in fact, it was the opposite, left spectators, both in Paris and around the world, shocked.
And now, as The Guardian has reported, it has been revealed that the statement blaming supporters was prepared “long before match day”.
David Conn, as part of a must-read visual investigation into the chaos at Saint-Denis, explains that “it was decided in the planning stages of the match, as it would probably be used in the event that the kick-off had to be delayed. .”
Ian Byrne, Labor MP for West Derby, described the news as “truly shocking and horrifying”, adding: “Doing it to Liverpool supporters after everything we’ve been through is appalling.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool City Mayor Steve Rotheram recalled a confrontation with UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin over the dangerous situation outside the stadium.
Ceferin is believed to have conveyed the decision to delay the start from the VIP area of ​​the Stade de France, where Rotheram was escorted away after being caught up in the disturbing scenes in the lobby.
Ceferin told Rotheram that UEFA had “committed suicide” to ensure that the final, which had been moved from St Petersburg to Paris months earlier, would go ahead, discounting the plight of fans at the time.
