.
Why would counterfeit banknotes be the "root evil" according to Darmanin?
According to the French authorities, the existence of these counterfeit tickets in very large numbers was detected during the pre-filtering around the Stade de France on the English side managed by the stewards of the French Football Federation (FFF).
"70% of the paper tickets presented for pre-filtering were false" on the English side, assured the Minister of the Interior on Monday, without being able to give precise figures.
He simply spoke of 30,000 to 40,000 Liverpool supporters present around the stadium on Saturday "without tickets or with counterfeit tickets".
Fans carrying counterfeit tickets were then unable to pass this pre-filtering creating a congestion which forced the Paris police chief to lift it and let the crowd access the stadium gates without control, causing "great confusion", according to the minister.
.
How many counterfeit notes were circulating Saturday night?
It is difficult to answer this question precisely.
The Minister mentioned the rate of 70% of counterfeit banknotes detected, but no precise figure was given on the number of verified banknotes.
If, as the minister did on Monday, we relate this rate to the population of Liverpool fans present on Saturday evening around the Stade de France, nearly 60,000 according to him, we would arrive at more than 40,000 counterfeit tickets.
"It is still too early to have a precise estimate," said the minister's entourage.
Chaotic Champions League final at Stade France Sylvie HUSSON AFP
"It's a wet finger estimate, we will have to wait to obtain more precise elements to have a fair estimate", confided Monday on condition of anonymity a government adviser.
Be that as it may, the thesis of such a fraud, organized across the Channel, would constitute by its presumed scale a first in the history of ticketing in the Champions League.
“The English authorities had warned us of the possibility of the presence of false tickets, but not of the magnitude”, assured a source close to the government.
An investigation has been entrusted to the Paris judicial police by the Saint-Denis public prosecutor's office to shed light on this affair and this question of counterfeit tickets should be addressed in the independent investigation opened Monday by UEFA into the fiasco of the Stade de France.
.
A thesis that does not convince across the Channel
"It's bullshit," tweeted - in French - Gary Lineker, the former England international just after the minister's press conference on Monday.
The English press generally believes that this thesis of a massive fraud makes it possible to exonerate the French authorities from any responsibility in the fiasco of Saturday evening.
"The real reason that put so many lives at risk on that traumatic evening in Paris was due to the combination of the organizational failure of UEFA and the French police," said Liverpool Echo columnist Ryan Paton. .
He also regretted that the Minister of Sports, Amélie Oudéa-Castera, alongside Mr. Darmanin on Monday, continued to "peddle the story" of a chaos caused by "Reds fans with fake tickets".
Sports Minister Amélie Oudea-Castera on May 30, 2022 at the Sports Ministry in Paris after an interministerial meeting on the dysfunctions in the organization of the Champions League final at the Stade de France Thomas COEX AFP
"The explanation of counterfeit notes is a marginal thing and they inflated it because they needed to find an explanation for their own failures", judges the head of a large group of supporters, present Saturday at the Stade de France.
If counterfeit tickets have always accompanied sporting or cultural events, the weight given to them by the French authorities seems disproportionate for some present on Saturday evening at the match.
"These are lies from the worst liars," said a Liverpool fan present at the match on Saturday and interviewed by AFP, Daniel Austin, 27.
"First they tried to blame the Liverpool fans, now they're trying to blame the counterfeits," English journalist Kaveh Solhekol told Sky Sports.
© 2022 AFP