Logo

Sports

Paris in chaos after Champions League final: fans attacked by thieves

Real Madrid and Liverpool fans went through a nightmare at the end of the match, but in France, the government justified the riots by fake tickets

By Andy Leal Cerdá

May 30, 2022 7:01pm

Updated: May 31, 2022 1:09pm

The 2022 Champions League final in Paris will be forever etched in the memories of Real Madrid and Liverpool fans. The Spaniards won their fourteenth European Cup, with a goal by Vinícius and a historical performance by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, while the English suffered defeat and police charges due to problems at the access to the Stade de France. Yet the trip to France and the Champions League final in Saint-Denis will forever be etched as a horror movie for those who were there, in which thousands of fans were attacked by organized gangs of criminals outside the stadium.

"At the exit, they were waiting to steal. They were like crocodiles waiting in the river for their victim," said Madrid fan Pedro Alcaina in the program El Larguero on the SER network.

“There were no security rings or anything like that, anyone could sneak in and those who were seen jumping fences were people from the neighborhood, of various races, who were already looking at everyone, touching, looking for watches, cell phones. That's how it happened later, there were a lot of people without tickets, the passageways were full, the fans were mixed. People were sneaking in and could stand wherever they wanted," said José Francisco, who on Saturday arrived in his van at the venue of the final after traveling from Spain. 

The situation worsened after the match was over, especially for Arancha Cortés and her daughter, who had not entered the stadium and told the Spanish radio their experience. "We went from a bar to the subway and I began to see hundreds of people from the neighborhood watching us, stalking all the fans, looking for something to steal. The first load arrived and everything got worse, because everything around us was closed. I called my husband and asked him to leave the stadium because we were very scared, and so were hundreds of fans of both teams."

"You saw gangs of these people going towards the stadium, robbing, mugging, with cutters to cut up bags. I couldn't believe what was happening, there were hundreds and hundreds of them. I got to the subway and people were running out of there. You can just imagine what was going on down there. They threw pepper spray and it hit us hard," José Francisco added.

The French government blames the vandalism that delayed the start of the final for 36 minutes on the more than 40,000 English fans who arrived with fake tickets. Liverpool even issued a statement saying their fans were not to blame and pointed out the mismanaged security failure at the event.

The sheer survival instinct led fans to try to defend themselves. "Fans were joining together to form shields and defend themselves better, even Real Madrid and Liverpool fans together. I later found out that many girls had been stripped and robbed."

In the early hours of the morning, the fans headed back to Madrid or Liverpool with many more experiences than the soccer match. "People can't imagine what it was like. There were armies of muggers on the hunt for us. There were fights, muggings, robberies, and charges. A scary movie," said Alfredo Gómez. 

"Now you talk about it, because nothing happened to you, but you don't want to see yourself in one like that again. A lot of people did have something happen to them," he added.  

Related Articles

The latest