2022 Champions League final: ‘Complete breakdown of authority’, says Liverpool fan as he retraces the mayhem
Bringing Liverpool fan Daniel Nicolson back to the Stade de France was a chance for him to retrace a night he would rather forget.
But one he wants to ensure isn’t forgotten – to ensure the actions and inactions outside last year’s Champions League final are acted on.
Standing outside gate A, Mr Nicolson remembered: “A complete breakdown of any sort of authority.”
From authorities who initially tried to falsely deflect the blame on to ticketless Liverpool fans arriving too late for the climax of the season – a glamour final against Real Madrid.
Vindication has come with the publication of the review commissioned by UEFA that ended up assigning more blame on European football’s governing body than French officials entrusted with policing and crowd management.
The initial disorder was caused by local authorities beyond the Stade de France perimeters.
The routes Liverpool fans were directed to follow from a train station were long and chaotic.
There was a clear lack of stewarding to direct people to the correct access points.
And people were funnelled into bottlenecks and entry lanes that lacked a clear and safe means for those at the wrong entrance to leave.
“I just can’t believe they got it wrong,” Mr Nicolson said.
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What happened during CL final?
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Compounding the organisational disarray was the social unrest caused by locals attacking fans and attempting to climb over fences.
The use of tear gas and pepper spray was used far too proactively and intimidatingly by police to attempt to disperse those disruptive locals from the area.
Fans – particularly asthmatic ones – were caught up in it. Riot police fell to the ground as even they struggled with the chemicals.
Risks were exacerbated by fears of crushing as turnstiles were closed and fans were shut out.
In the mayhem, security officials tried to prevent media filming – grabbing at journalists to remove their fans and ordering footage to be deleted.
But the vast amount of footage quickly quashed the attempt at a cover-up. French authorities on the night of 28 May 2022 ordered UEFA to remove a reference to the locals being a source of disruption.
The review concluded the lack of coordination and control – outside of UEFA’s remit to dictate instructions to police – flowed from a strategy that viewed Liverpool fans as a threat.
They ended up being the ones left trying to prevent lives being lost as they confronted disarray and dangers on the outskirts of Paris.
Mr Nicolson said: “This cannot happen again. I was so relieved when the report came out and it vindicated us as fans.
“It exonerated us of any involvement in the absolute shambles that happened here. But it’s now time for UEFA to act upon those recommendations. Not just for us but for all football fans.”
Supporters are still waiting to hear a French response to UEFA’s report and guarantees they’ll be better protected in future.
In a club statement, Liverpool claimed recommendations to prevent organisational failures from an initial French senate inquiry are yet to be implemented.
And the UEFA review team found complacency around major event planning here.
Next year the Olympics are in Paris – using the Stade de France for the athletics events. And the International Olympic Committee told Sky News it has been assured changes recommended will be implemented at stadiums before then – at the men’s Rugby World Cup later this year.
Report co-author Prof Clifford Stott told Sky News: “We should be trying to work out how we can work together moving forward to ensure that situations like Paris never come about again.”
President Trump has signed an order banning people from 12 countries from entering the US.
He said Sunday’s attack in Colorado had shown “the extreme dangers” of “foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come as temporary visitors and overstay their visas”.
“We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm,” the president said.
The countries affected are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The White House said some had a “significant terrorist presence” and accused others of poor screening for dangerous individuals, as well as not accepting deported citizens.
People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will face partial restrictions.
Mr Trump’s proclamation said America must ensure people entering don’t have “hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles” – and don’t support terror groups.
Protests took place when Mr Trump announced his first travel ban in 2017. Pic: Reuters
The move echoes a controversial and chaotic order enacted eight years ago during his first term, when he banned people from predominately Muslim countries.
The countries initially targeted then were Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.
President Trump said on Thursday that policy was a “key part of preventing major foreign terror attacks on American soil”.
His new list notably removes Syria after Mr Trump met the country’s leader recently on a trip to the Middle East.
Athletes competing in the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics will also be exempt, as will others such as permanent US residents and Afghans with special immigrant visas.
The list was put together after the president asked homeland security officials and the director of national intelligence to compile a report on countries whose citizens could pose a threat.
The ban takes effect from 9 June – but countries could be removed or added.
The proclamation states it will be reviewed within 90 days, and every 180 days after, to decide if it should be “continued, terminated, modified, or supplemented”.
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President Trump’s first travel restrictions in 2017 were criticised by opponents and human rights groups as a “Muslim ban”.
It led to some chaotic scenes, including tourists, students and business travellers prevented from boarding planes – or held at US airports when they landed.
Mr Trump denied it was Islamophobic despite calling for a ban on Muslims entering America in his first presidential campaign.
It faced legal challenges and was modified until the Supreme Court upheld a third version in June 2018, calling it “squarely within the scope of presidential authority”.
Humanitarian aid must be allowed into Gaza “at scale” by Israel to avoid a “generation of children that won’t have a chance in life,” the director of the UN’s World Food Programme has told Sky News.
In early March – before Israel resumed its military operations in the Gaza Strip – all aid was blocked from entering the region.
Despite limited aid now being distributed to Gaza through a US and Israeli-backed organisation, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry said Palestinians were killed by Israeli gunfire near one of the sites.
Cindy McCain, executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), has urged Israel to allow international aid to “get in and get in at scale”.
“We can’t wait for this,” she told The World with Yalda Hakim. “We need safe, unfettered, clear access all the way in and we’re not getting that right now.”
Ms McCain said people in Gaza were “starving, they’re hungry, they’re doing what they can do to feed their families”.
She added: “It’s very, very important that people realise that the only way to stave off malnutrition, catastrophic food insecurity and, of course, famine would be by complete and total access for organisations like mine.”
Ms McCain said the WFP team was “talking every day” to the Israeli government to try to resume aid deliveries.
Palestinians struggle to get donated food at a community kitchen in Khan Younis on Monday. Pic: AP
“We’re not going to give up, we do believe that it’s not only necessary but it’s urgent that we get in and get in at scale,” she said.
“We’re looking at a generation of children that won’t have a chance in life because they haven’t had the proper nutrients.
“Right now, we’re looking at over 500,000 people within Gaza that are catastrophically food insecure.”
Ms McCain added: “I try and put myself in their situation: I’m a mother and grandmother, and I cannot imagine having my children ask me for food and me not being able to give it them.
“I don’t know what that does to a human spirit but I don’t want to see any more of that as a humanitarian aid worker.”
Ms McCain, the widow of the late US presidential candidate John McCain, said she believes in “principled, humanitarian distribution” of aid.
Asked if she thought Hamas was taking aid, she replied: “I have not seen anything like that. I have no way of knowing because I’ve not been there in person.”
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How Israel’s aid plan unravelled
Aid distribution centres in Gaza were closed on Wednesday after Palestinians were reportedly killed by Israeli gunfire near one of its sites.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – which is endorsed by Israel – said the centres would be shut “for renovations, organisation, and efficiency improvements”. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) warned nearby roads would be considered “combat zones”.
It came after 27 Palestinians were killed while waiting for aid to be distributed in the Rafah area of southern Gaza on Tuesday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
The IDF said it fired “near a few individual suspects” who left the designated route, approached its forces and ignored warning shots, about half a kilometre from the aid distribution site of the GHF. It denied shooting at civilians at the aid centre.
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That incident came two days after reports that 31 people were killed as they walked to a distribution centre run by the GHF in the Rafah area.
However the IDF said its forces “did not fire at civilians while they were near or within the humanitarian aid distribution site and that reports to this effect are false”.
It’s only been ten days since Donald Trump called Vladimir Putin crazy following a series of Russian attacks on Ukraine.
But now the attacks have been flowing in the opposite direction, it feels like the Russian president has seen an opportunity to win back Washington’s affections.
It involves playing the victim.
Ukraine war latest: Putin wants revenge for airbase attacks, says Trump
The Kremlin, for example, said the leaders’ call was focussed on Ukrainian attacks “on Russian civilians”.
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Ukraine drone attack: new video analysed
Putin accused Ukraine of relying on ‘terror’. Pic: Reuters
And before it, Putin accused Ukraine’s leadership of being a “terrorist organisation”, in his first comments since the spate of assaults began.
He was referring to Saturday’s bombing of a highway bridge in the Bryansk region, which left seven dead and dozens injured after part of a passenger train was crushed.
No one has claimed responsibility but Russia blames Ukraine.
“The current Kyiv regime does not need peace at all,” said President Putin.
“What is there to talk about? How can we negotiate with those who rely on terror?”
It’s exactly what Ukraine has been saying about Russia for the last three years, but there was no mention of that. The Kremlin is in full-on victim mode.
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Will Putin go nuclear?
The aim, I think, is to turn the tables on Ukraine, cast itself as the injured party and make Donald Trump believe that Russia has a right to respond to the drone attack on its long-range bombers.
The tactic may well have worked.
“President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields,” Trump wrote on social media after the call.
Did he try to talk Putin out of responding? We don’t know, but it doesn’t sound like it. If anything, Trump actually announced Russia’s retaliation himself.
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And even though Putin discussed the drone attack with Trump, he still hasn’t commented on it in public – four days on.
Russia wants to be seen as the victim, but it doesn’t want to look weak, so an embarrassing episode like that is kept out of the headlines.
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