Chaos around the Stade de France involving Liverpool fans forced a 30-minute delay in the Champions League Final with Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.
It was meant to kick off at 20.00 UK time (19.00 GMT).
However, with thousands of supporters still stuck outside in a bottleneck at the gates and many seats empty – all of them in the Liverpool sections – UEFA announced that kick-off will now be at 20.15 UK time (19.15 GMT).
That was then postponed to 20.30 UK time (19.30 GMT) as the issues continued.
There are mixed reports as to why there are so many problems only with the Liverpool supporters, although there seem to be far more of them than the Real Madrid contingent in the city.
According to RMC Sport in France, sections of the Liverpool fans barged their way through gates and a blockade to gain entry into the area around the stadium rather than the stadium itself.
English sources at the ground claim the pre-filtration system is not working properly, causing a bottleneck around a couple of gates that left fans waiting outside for two hours.
The issue might be because so many of the tickets put up for general sale were snapped up by Liverpool fans, either directly or through the sell-on market.
There are inevitably fears from the French authorities that there will be a repeat of the scenes at Wembley for the EURO 2020 Final between England and Italy, when hundreds of England fans without tickets barged their way into the stadium by breaking through security checks.
Those proved at least partly founded after footage of fans clambering over the gates and running into the stadium.
Sky Sport Italia report there were too many fans without tickets trying to gain entry and gates were locked to prevent the stewards getting overwhelmed, which created a bottleneck.
Fuori controllo la situazione allo Stade de France: tifosi scavalcano i tornelli ⚠️pic.twitter.com/metxWriYzO
— GOAL Italia (@GoalItalia) May 28, 2022
Liverpool fans are still making their way into the Stade de France after severe congestion and bottle-necks caused chaos on approach to the stadium (video via @SamWallaceTel) #UCL #LFC pic.twitter.com/saDq4iLoRb
— Telegraph Football (@TeleFootball) May 28, 2022
Little chaotic at the entrances outside the Stade France. Seems too many fans heading toward same entrance. Fan reps hoping situation can be resolved quickly and safely. pic.twitter.com/epURW9iSre
— tariq panja (@tariqpanja) May 28, 2022
Here we go! But remember, its never their fault.
I watched the queuing outside and it’s not late arrivals it’s the incompetent way they were processed. Huge tension caui y hopeless organisation.
Caused by
Are you a complete tit? I’ve just been sent pictures of friends stuck in the queues outside who have been there for three hours. How is that the fault of the fans?
Exactly