A report on incidents in the latest Champions League final, written by a panel of academics, blames French police for what it calls acts of “criminal aggression” to which fans were subjected.
Led by Phil Scraton, a British professor who also led an independent investigation into the Hillsborough disaster, which killed 97 people in 1989, the panel heard testimony from 485 people, two-thirds of whom say they fear for their lives.
The investigation quoted by The Guardian points to UEFA’s “glaring” failings and argues that men, women and children were put in danger when thousands of fans were stranded outside the Stade de France ahead of the Real Madrid-Liverpool match.
The report says there were “persistent and random police attacks on supporters and the unprovoked use of tear gas against men, women and children in confined spaces was negligent and dangerous. It constitutes criminal assault.”
The same document argues that the “hostility” of the police before, during and after the match “demonstrates a collective mentality that has resulted in abuses of criminal law” and that UEFA’s failures with regard to stadium security and management of the crowd “severely compromised the health and well-being”. -being from fans”, who were also subjected to “robbery with a knife by gang locations”.
Testimonies collected by the report’s authors say supporters “were put at risk due to aggressive policing, ineffective security measures and failure to implement comprehensive stadium security management plans and risk management principles.” “.
The investigators even conclude that “based on their knowledge and, for some, direct experience, of the Hillsborough disaster, Liverpool supporters averted a tragedy through their collective action.”
Almost a month after the publication of the investigation promoted by UEFA -and headed by former minister Tiago Brandão Rodrigues-, the independent report identifies “multiple functional failures” that led to a sequence of events “difficult to understand”, but that left to many “injured, mentally affected and financially compromised” people.
Source: TSF
