Gerald Darmanin, the French Interior Minister, has accused Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp of asking the club’s fans to travel to France without purchasing tickets for the Champions League final versus Real Madrid.
Darmanin claimed that the Liverpool manager was responsible for the turmoil that erupted between Liverpool fans and French officials during the game.
The Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool at the Stade de France was postponed by 36 minutes after hundreds of Liverpool fans were denied entry despite arriving hours ahead of time.
Reds fans, some of whom were minors, were subjected to tear gas and pepper spray by French police.
However, Darmanin, who had blamed ‘fraud at an industrial level’ for the situation, claimed that 70 per cent of tickets that were checked at the pre-filtering stage at the Stade de France were fake.
He said during a press conference on Monday that ‘30,000 to 40,000 Liverpool supporters found themselves at the Stade de France either with fake tickets or without a ticket’.
According to him, this was not the first time Liverpool fans were caught in this mess, recalling that in 2019, the final between Liverpool and Tottenham, the Reds posed the same problems in Madrid adding that it was the same scenario played out during another at Wembley a few years ago.
“There is also the Liverpool coach [Klopp] who called on the supporters to travel to France even without tickets,” he added.
“We ended up with tens of thousands of British supporters, some of whom had respected the rules perfectly. And a minor, but extremely lively, section which pushed the authorities.”