What happened in Paris?

[knownunknown]

I thought originally it was the Liverpool fans that went mental but more is coming out now that it was locals assaulting them.

[quodec]

To paraphrase an Italian footballer, 'why always Liverpool?'

[knownunknown]

True enough.

Liverpool FC are adamant though it wasn’t their supporters and the media have been quick to blame them. The people seen jumping over the fence weren’t wearing Liverpool jerseys or scarfs or anything.

Maybe I haven’t seen all the footage available but is there anything showing the Liverpool fans messing around?

Looks more like a case of the media covering up the real story here to me, with the rugby and the olympics set for France soon.

[knownunknown]

Look at the ‘fans’ on the right of the fence ~18-20 seconds.

See the ‘fan’ getting arrested at ~1minute19seconds.

Riot police moving away from the stadium 2m43seconds.

3minutes27seconds doesn’t look like Liverpool fans either.

There was a party atmosphere among the Liverpool fans, they were seen so upset that their comrades weren’t allowed to enter the stadium. They weren’t acting like hooligans, at least in any footage I saw, UNTIl the pepper spray came out. Why did it come out though?

Thierry Henry said this before the day of the final.

[marhay70]

Look at the ‘fans’ on the right of the fence ~18-20 seconds.

See the ‘fan’ getting arrested at ~1minute19seconds.

Riot police moving away from the stadium 2m43seconds.

3minutes27seconds doesn’t look like Liverpool fans either.

There was a party atmosphere among the Liverpool fans, they were seen so upset that their comrades weren’t allowed to enter the stadium. They weren’t acting like hooligans, at least in any footage I saw, UNTIl the pepper spray came out. Why did it come out though?

Thierry Henry said this before the day of the final.

I have to say, the sight of all those Liverpool fans behind bars has a certain irony.

[Del.Monte]

Not a lot happened according to that video. The July 1981 Ballsbridge British Embassy riot - now that was an event - sadly all the YouTube videos seem to have been taken down.

[Hairy-Joe]

Well, I think the media has decided who's guilty without knowing the full story. Also, the reputation of English football fans could have coloured people's views and maybe there's some assumed guilt.

How come there's nothing in the news for Real fans? How come there's nothing in the news for Rugby matches?

I think there's a lot more than what meets the eye when it comes to this story.....

[knownunknown]

Not a lot happened according to that video. The July 1981 Ballsbridge British Embassy riot - now that was an event - sadly all the YouTube videos seem to have been taken down.

A couple here.





There was more footage of what happened in France but it’s getting deleted quickly! I was going to share this article until I noticed it was suddenly gone. It was there about an hour ago. https://www.google.com/search?q=https:/ ... AHoECAAQAw

[CelticRambler]

I have no interest in soccer and am immune to hearing that the CRS (French riot police) were in action at/around a match, so didn't pay much heed to this when it happened. However, the story has continued to make the news here, so I've caught up with it (to a certain extent) now.

It would seem that it was a "perfect storm" of foreseeable and unforeseeable events, the first of which (unforeseeable) was the relocation of the final from St. Petersburg to "Paris". That left the French authorities with very little time to hire sufficient staff, never mind get them trained up properly. According to some commentators, they were still advertising (on Facebook) just a week before the event.

This translated on the day into several poor reactions by said staff when faced with problems, and the first problem in that regard was some Liverpool fans turning up with tickets that would not scan as genuine. Whether so many tickets were or were not genuine is still unclear, but the people with tickets arguing with the gate staff that that they were caused a massive bottleneck. That bottleneck, made worse by a limited number of control points, due to staffing difficulties, triggered a "memories of Hillsborough" feeling in the crowd, and the French authorities decided to defuse it by abandoning the outer perimeter control points, allowing fans with and without tickets to flood the area immediately surrounding the stadium.

One reporter highlighted the difference between the situation on the Real and Liverpool sides: the Real fans turn up early with tickets, get off the metro and go straight into the stadium; whereas the Liverpool (English) fans often don't have tickets but head to the area around any stadium to enjoy the party atmosphere. With or without tickets, they get the RER, tend to wait until close to kick-off before filling their half of the stadium.

This is where Thierry Henri's comment is pertinent: you do not go to Seine Saint Denis for a party - you go to cause trouble (or better still, don't go at all). It is not Paris; it is a deprived ghetto, and is the worst part of the whole of France for random, unprovoked violence, and home to a "great bunch of lads" who (it seems) knew better than the French police that the English fans would not race straight from the RER to the stadium, but hang around on the streets. There were several gangs of them waiting to steal phones, steal wallets, steal tickets, sell (fake?) tickets and generally do what the natives of the "93" do day, day out.

And then, to complete the shambles, it seems that the stadium authorities decided that the disturbances on the outside were nothing to do with them, as that is/was/should have been the responsibility of public law enforcement, so they shut the stadium gates to everyone until the situation was resolved. That meant genuine fans with valid tickets then couldn't get in, leaving them short tempered and with nowhere to go other than back through the thieves, rioters and scammers.

The fellows climbing the fence to get in were, allegedly, all French and had no tickets. There are accounts of some Liverpool supporters hauling them off the barriers and delivering them to the police, so not all the stories portray them in a bad light.

[Del.Monte]

A couple here.

There was more footage of what happened in France but it’s getting deleted quickly! I was going to share this article until I noticed it was suddenly gone. It was there about an hour ago. https://www.google.com/search?q=https:/ ... AHoECAAQAw

That was the Merrion Square Embassy in 1972, the Ballsbridge one in 1981 was much more 'interesting'.