The Guardian recently published a detailed article with regards to the horrible incident that happened during the finals for the Champions League on May 28th 2022. The match was Real Madrid vs Liverpool, and it was held in Stade de France in Paris. It was handled poorly and was seconds away from disaster.
Liverpool fans saw disastrous results as the police threw teargas at them when a riot broke out due to attacks from neighbourhood thugs. To make the situation worse, Uefa blamed Liverpool fans. They joined forces with the French government and the police in this blame train.
The incident could have been as bad as the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy where 97 people lost their lives. The South Yorkshire police blamed Liverpool supporters for their behaviour back then. The Hillsborough tragedy happened during a Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest match, where a lack of communication was a given and bottlenecks, with half of Liverpool fans weren’t even in 30 minutes before the kickoff.
In the end, a stampede happened and the South Yorkshire police thought the Liverpool fans were unruly and rowdy. People were trying to escape the crowded pens, while the organisers had left multiple pens empty. The 97 that were killed had a lack of medical attention due to the crowded scene.
For this 2022 incident, 15,000 people were gathered in a tight spot and Hillsborough survivors stated that they felt the trauma resurging from the 1989 tragedy. A study done showed that a risk of a stampede could have happened, and a repeat of the tragedy just as bad could’ve been the case. The line grew longer and longer, Liverpool fans claimed that the police and organisers did not give any explanations.
CCTV footage of the potential tragedy was deleted after a week because the police did not request for the footage to be kept. The police fired pepper spray towards hundreds of people as they were stopped from entering the stadium to attend the match that they rightfully paid for.
Every television commentator that said on the day "well the Madrid fans got in ok, there must be issues because of Liverpool fans" should be fired
— Math (@BigMEMath) September 21, 2022
A tweet was posted about this situation and netizens went on an online rampage against the Uefa and the French government. A spokesperson claimed that the Real Madrid fans got in all okay and blamed the Liverpool fans for making a mess. Netizens claimed that the spokesperson should rightfully be fired.
Furthermore, other football fans stated that the organisers and the government will always blame the fans as “it’s never their (Uefa or the government’s) fault.” The lack of security led outsiders who did not pay for their tickets to occupy paying customer seats, and the handlers of the event would then kick out the paying customers claiming their ticket was fake.