World Rugby and the International Olympic Committee will come under pressure from disabled Liverpool fans to strip the Stade de France of hosting events at the 2024 Olympics and the 2023 Rugby World Cup after their traumatic experiences.
The treatment of supporters during the Champions League final against Real Madrid has been described as ‘horrendous’, and the grim details, which have been compiled in recent weeks, will be laid out to parliamentarians today at the French Senate.
Ted Morris and Joe Blott, the respective chairs of the Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association and the Spirit of Shankly fan group, will take part in the inquiry.
Morris has put together a record of the harrowing ordeals of various disabled fans, which includes a child being teargassed, a wheelchair user crowd-surfed to safety, a blind fan separated from their carer and a woman suffering a shoulder dislocation.
A ‘grotesque’ attack also took place on a disabled woman as she left the ground.
‘The authorities failed massively,’ Morris said. ‘I’ve emailed Lord Coe and Sir Bill Beaumont as well because I am of the opinion the stadium is not suitable to hold those two massive events after what happened to us. It was just horrendous.’
Stade de France is facing calls to be stripped of events after the Champions League final chaos
Liverpool supporters were tear-gassed (above) by police, with disabled fans poorly treated
Currently the Stade de France, which has a seating capacity of 80,698, will hold the Rugby World Cup semi-finals and final in 2023 and Olympic athletic events in 2024.
A major source of frustration for Liverpool supporters has been the post-match claims of several figures in the French authorities. Indeed, interior minister Gerald Darmanin claimed that 30,000-40,000 Reds fans turned up without a proper ticket.
He has since admitted, however, that mistakes were made by those responsible for the running of the event and said he ‘deplores the errors’ which led to the chaos.
‘We will bring the issue of disability to the French Senate and call out the untruths,’ Morris added. ‘Our disabled supporters suffered greatly in Paris.
The stadium will hold the Rugby World Cup semi-finals and final and Olympic athletic events
France’s interior minister Gerald Darmanin admitted mistakes were made by the authorities
‘The French have tried to use a narrative and playbook that has haunted this football club. And they have done it without basis or substance.
‘We had nine games in Europe last season – there was not one single arrest. We went there for a festival of sport. There are a lot of people affected by this and we can’t allow this narrative to gain any more traction.
‘We will provide testimonies of some of the horrendous experiences of our disabled supporters – families and children as young as eight. We hope to get some answers. We need to go there and tell the truth about what happened.’
There has been widespread outrage at the treatment of supporters for the match on May 28. Countless accounts have laid bare crippling congestion issues, poor organisation and assaults and robberies from local gangs as fans left the stadium.
There was an initial attempt to solely pin the blame of the disorder last month on Reds fans
Didier Lallement, head of Paris police, conceded he made a mistake over his fake ticket claim
The head of Paris police, Didier Lallement, has conceded his claim that up to 40,000 Liverpool supporters looked to get into the ground with fake tickets was incorrect.
‘Perhaps I made a mistake with the figure I gave to the minister,’ he said.
‘It is obviously a failure because people were pushed and attacked,’ Lallement then added. ‘It’s a failure because the image of the country was undermined.’
Sportsmail revealed earlier this month that the French authorities blocked attempts to portray an accurate picture of what was behind the disorder as part of a ‘politically motivated cover-up’ that ‘reaches high levels of government’.
An investigation by the Daily Mail learned that UEFA officials wanted to issue a statement before the end of the match to highlight the role of local thugs.
French authorities blocked attempts to portray an accurate picture of the causes of the chaos
Some politicians that Sportsmail had spoken to believe that Liverpool fans were scapegoated
European football’s governing body, however, was ordered to remove any such reference, with the blame instead placed solely on Liverpool supporters.
These revelations came just 24 hours after a report commissioned by the French prime minister found that Liverpool fans were not to blame.
Instead, crowd management failures and a lack of information were the main contributing factors.
The Telegraph has contacted the operators of the Stade de France for comment.
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