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WATCH: Liverpool fans travel to France by dinghy after flights cancelled

The self-styled 'dinghy dozen' braved the waves in a desperate attempt to avoid missing the Champions League final.

Published: 28 May 2022 12:39 CEST
Liverpool FC's supporters dance and drink near a bar in Paris on May 27, 2022, on the eve of the Champions League football match final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
Tens of thousands of Liverpool fans have arrived in Paris for the Champions League final. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

13 Liverpool fans arrived safely in Paris after crossing the English Channel by dinghy. 

After some of the group had their flight cancelled, the supporters gathered in Jersey where mega-fan Paddy O’Toole is based. 

“We felt sorry for the young lads so we had to do something,” he told The Liverpool Echo. 

The group decided to commission a Redbay Stormforce 950 – a motor-powered dinghy – to speed across the waves. 

In a video of the crossing, one passenger can be heard shouting: “We must be off our f*******g heads”. 

“We saw a few dolphins on the way and got the train to Rennes and then to Paris. A few more of are mates from Liverpool who live in Jersey heard we were going and joined on. We haven’t got a ticket between us,” said Paddy. 

Another member of the group later a picture on Facebook showing him and man called ‘Pegs’ enjoying pints in a Paris pub. 

Some 60,000 Liverpool fans are expected in Paris for the final against Real Madrid. 

READ MORE What Liverpool fans coming to Paris for the Champions League final need to know

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PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS

Paris Olympics organisers deny athletes’ beds are ‘anti-sex’

They may be made of cardboard, but the beds at the athletes' village for this year's Paris Olympics have been chosen for their environmental credentials, not to prevent competitors having sex, organisers said.

Published: 18 May 2024 13:19 CEST
Paris Olympics organisers deny athletes' beds are 'anti-sex'

The clarification came after fresh reports that the beds, manufactured by Japanese company Airweave and already used during the Tokyo 2020 Games, were to deter athletes from jumping under the covers together in the City of Love.

“We know the media has had a lot of fun with this story since Tokyo 2020, but for Paris 2024 the choice of these beds for the Olympic and Paralympic Village is primarily linked to a wider ambition to ensure minimal environmental impact and a second life for all equipment,” a spokesman for the Paris Games told AFP.

The bed bases are made from recycled cardboard, but during a demonstration in July last year Airweave founder Motokuni Takaoka jumped on one of them and stressed that they “can support several people on top”.

The Paris Games spokesman underlined that “the quality of the furniture has been rigorously tested to ensure it is robust, comfortable and appropriate for all the athletes who will use it, and who span a very broad range of body types – from gymnasts to judokas”.

The fully modular Airweave beds can be customised to accommodate long and large body sizes, with the mattresses — made out of resin fibre — available with different firmness levels.

After the Games, the bed frames will be recycled while the mattresses and pillows will be donated to schools or associations.

Athletes will sleep in single beds, two or three to a room, in the village, a newly built complex close to the main athletics stadium in a northern suburb of the capital.

A report this week in the New York Post tabloid entitled “‘Anti-sex’ beds have arrived at Paris Olympics” was reported by other media and widely circulated on social media.

Similar claims went viral before the Tokyo Olympics, sometimes fanned by athletes themselves.

To debunk them, Irish gymnast Rhys McClenaghan filmed a video of himself jumping repeatedly on a bed to demonstrate their solidity.

At those Games, during the coronavirus pandemic, organisers, however, urged athletes to “avoid unnecessary forms of physical contact”.

In March, Laurent Dalard, in charge of first aid and health services at Paris 2024, said around 200,000 condoms for men and 20,000 for women will be made available at the athletes’ village during the Games.

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