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‘Shambolic and dangerous’: Chaos at Stade de France mars Champions League final

There were chaotic scenes at the Champions League football final in Paris on Saturday night, with long queues, kick-off delayed, police firing tear-gas and youths trying to force their way into the stadium.

Published: 28 May 2022 22:26 CEST
Updated: 29 May 2022 14:38 CEST
'Shambolic and dangerous': Chaos at Stade de France mars Champions League final
Liverpool fans stand outside unable to get in in time leading to the match being delayed prior to the UEFA Champions League final football match between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, on May 28, 2022. (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

The match between Real Madrid and Liverpool FC eventually got underway at 9.37pm, more than half an hour late, after chaotic scenes at the entry gates to the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, just outside Paris. 

At the slated kick-off time of 9pm thousands of fans were still outside, with some having been queuing to get in for for more than two hours.

Problems are reported to have begun several hours before kick-off, with a pre-check of tickets and bags at the exit of the RER station at Stade de France turning into a dangerous bottleneck.

As the crush increased, the check was eventually waived, but many of the entry gates to the stadium were then closed after some people tried to force their way in.

Police then staged an intervention, including using tear gas, at the stadium after some fans tried to force their way into the ground, telling French media that the measure was “to repel attempts to intrude into the stadium”.

In a statement released just as the match ended, organisers UEFA blamed “Liverpool fans who had purchased fake tickets” for the chaos.

The statement read: “In the lead-up to the game, the turnstiles at the Liverpool end became blocked by thousands fans who had purchased fake tickets which did not work in the turnstiles.

“This created a build-up of fans trying to get in. As a result, the kick off was delayed by 35 minutes to allow as many fans as possible with genuine tickets to gain access.

“As numbers outside the stadium continued to build up after kick off, the police dispersed them with tear gas and forced them away from the stadium.

“UEFA is sympathetic to those affected by these events and will further review these matters urgently together with the French police and authorities, and with the French Football Federation.”

Meanwhile Liverpool FC has called for an investigation, saying in a statement: “We are hugely disappointed at the stadium entry issues and breakdown of the security perimeter that Liverpool fans faced this evening at Stade de France.

“This is the greatest match in European football and supporters should not have to experience the scenes we have witnessed tonight.

“We have officially requested a formal investigation into the causes of these unacceptable issues.”

Football Supporters Europe, a lobbying group representing fans around the continent, hit back at the security arrangements.

“Fans at the Champions League final bear no responsibility for tonight’s fiasco,” it tweeted before the match finally got underway.

“Thousands are still trapped outside the stadium, remaining calm in the face of a completely unreasonable situation.

“We urge the relevant authorities to ensure the safety of all fans.”

Pierre Barthélemy a lawyer for French supporters clubs was at the Stade de France monitoring the organisation of the day.

He said the blame lay with lack of organisation, crowd management and lack of information for Liverpool fans coming out of RER D that ended up with them stuck in a bottle neck for two and a half hours.

“People could have died in a crush,” he told Le Parisien newspaper.

“I have to commend the Liverpool fans who remained well behaved despite the interminable wait, the lack of information and the tear gas,” he said.

Kelly Cates, the daughter of Liverpool legend Kenny Dalglish, described the pre-match scenes outside France’s national stadium as “absolutely shambolic”.

“No way in, no way of knowing which way to go. Stay safe if you’re heading in,” Cates posted on her Twitter account.

Several eye witnesses including journalists said those trying to force their way into the ground were local youths.

One French police union Synergie-Officiers said: “Hordes of thugs came en masse to rob and assault supporters.”

Several videos posted on social media showed people either climbing over fences or trying to force their way into the stadium.

However Liverpool fans who had tickets were caught up in the chaos, with police spraying tear gas at fans waiting outside – including children.

An AFP journalist on the scene reported that about 20 people succeeding in getting into the ground.

Many of the seats in the official Liverpool end of the ground remained empty 25 minutes after the scheduled start time. Kick-off was delayed twice, with an in-ground announcement saying it was down to “fans arriving late” while UEFA said they delay was “due to a security issue”.

British football pundit Gary Lineker was among those stuck in the crowds outside, tweeting that he was “finding it impossible to get into the ground”.

France’s Interior minister Gérald Darmanin also weighed into the argument, blaming British fans.

He tweeted: “Thousands of British ‘fans’, without tickets or with fake tickets have forced the entrances and, sometimes, behaved violently towards stewards. Thank you to the many police forces mobilised tonight in this difficult context.”

Darmanin’s statement was ridiculed by many on Twitter who posted videos of local youths trying to get into the ground.

In a statement, the Paris police chief also blamed fans with no tickets or fake tickets for the chaos, claiming that their interventions had been to “restore order and remove those causing a disturbance”.

Paris police came in for sharp criticism for their actions, especially the use of tear gas on fans outside the grounds.

The statement from police said that “fans were dispersed without difficulty”, adding that there had been no major incidents in either of the two fan zones.

However fans reported being tear gassed at the fanzone at the Cour de Vincennes whilst there were also images of French police wading in with batons to break up a fight on a cafe terrace.

Paris police said there were 68 arrests in total in Paris and in Saint-Denis throughout the day including one man found with scores of fake tickets.

There were also scores of reports on Twitter of fans being mugged and attacked on the way home from the stadium by gangs of youths.

As estimated 60,000 Liverpool fans had travelled to Paris, most without tickets. Each club was allocated just 20,000 tickets for the 80,000-seater Stade de France.

The city of Paris had set up fan zones for fans without tickets – at Nation for Liverpool supporters and Saint-Denis for Real Madrid supporters. Both of these reached their full capacity before kick-off.

The match ended in a 1-0 win for the Spanish team.

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COST OF LIVING

What is considered a good salary in Paris?

The higher-paying jobs are heavily concentrated in the French capital, but set against that is the high cost of living - especially the cost of renting or buying a home. So what is considered a 'high-earner' in Paris?

Published: 25 June 2024 16:51 CEST
What is considered a good salary in Paris?

Centrist Renaissance candidate Sylvain Maillard, running for re-election in France’s snap parliamentary elections, was trying to highlight the high cost of living in the capital in a debate on RMC Radio 

“You have extremely expensive rents [in Paris], between €1,500 and €1,700, and then there are all the charges and taxes to pay,” he said.

But what most people seized on was his comment that anyone earning €4,000 a month after tax would not be considered rich in Paris – he predictably was accused of being out of touch with French people’s lives.

There’s no doubt that €4,000 a month is good salary that most people would be happy with – but how much do you need to earn to be considered ‘rich’ in Paris?

National averages

Earlier this year, the independent Observatoire des Inégalités calculated poverty and wealth levels in France.

READ ALSO How much money do you need to be considered rich in France?

According to its calculations, to be considered ‘rich’ in France, a single person with no dependants needs to earn more than €3,860 per month, after taxes and social charges. Around eight percent of single workers have this sum deposited into their bank balance every month, it said.

A total of 23 percent of workers take home €3,000 or more every month, while the top 10 percent clear €4,170. 

To be in the top one percent of earners in France in 2024, one person must bring in at least €10,000 per month. After taxes and social charges.

The median income – the median is the ‘middle value’ of a range of totals – of tax households in mainland France is €1,923 per month after taxes and social charges, according to INSEE 2021 data, which means that a ‘rich’ person earns about twice as much as a person on the median income, according to the Observatoire.

Paris situation

About 75 percent of people living in Paris earn less than €4,458 per month, according to Insee data – so according to those calculations, 25 percent of Parisians earn the equivalent of the top 10 percent in France. 

But that city-wide average still hides a wide degree of variation. In the sixth arrondissement, the median income is €4,358 per month, after tax. In the seventh, it’s €4,255.  Further out, those bringing home €4,600 a month in the 19th and 20th arrondissements are among the top 10 percent in wealth terms.

But still, the median income in Paris is €2,639, significantly higher than the €1,923 France-wide median.

That would mean – using the Observatoire des Inégalités’ starting point for wealth – that a Paris resident, living on their own, would have to bring home €5,278 per month to be considered ‘rich’. 

France is a heavily centralised country, with many of the highest-paying industries concentrated within the capital, meaning there is much more opportunity to secure a high-wage job if you live in Paris.

Cost of living

Even these figures should all be taken with a pinch of salt because of the relatively high cost of living in the capital, compared to elsewhere in France. Paris is objectively an expensive place to call home.

In 2023, France Stratégie published a report on the disposable income of French households, after housing, food and transport costs were deducted. It found that, on average, people living in the Paris region had more left to spend, due to higher incomes and despite the fact that housing costs more.

It’s the income paradox in action. A person with a take-home salary of €4,000 per month has more money to spend if they live and work outside Paris. But they’re much more likely to earn that much if they live and work in Paris, where it’s not as valuable. 

Someone who earns a ‘rich-level’ salary in Paris might not appear rich – because they live in an expensive area, and a surrounded by very wealthy people in property that’s out of reach all-but the fattest of wallets. But they’re still earning more than twice the median income in France.

And that’s what Sylvain Maillard was getting at, clumsily as he may have expressed it.

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