Incidents at Stade de France: Darmanin denounces "massive industrial and organised fraud of counterfeit tickets."

Gerald Darmanin, Interior Minister, denounced Monday the "massive industrial and organised fraud of counterfeit tickets" that occurred during the Champions League final.

Incidents at Stade de France: Darmanin denounces "massive industrial and organised fraud of counterfeit tickets."

Gerald Darmanin, Interior Minister, denounced Monday the "massive industrial and organised fraud of counterfeit tickets" that occurred during the Champions League final. This was followed by several incidents at the Stade de France on Saturday night. After an interministerial meeting on these issues, the Minister of Interior said that between 30,000 and 40,000 English supporters were found at the Stade de France with fake tickets or tickets without tickets.

The Minister stated that "70%" of paper tickets submitted for pre-filtering were false. He also said that "more than 15%" of fake tickets were created after pre-filtering was completed. He stated that "97%" of Spanish supporters were in the stands at 9 p.m. when the final delayed kick-off was scheduled. "Only 50% of British supporters were present," he said.

Gerald Darmanin then supported the Paris police headquarters' system to ensure the final. He said that he would have been there if it had not been for the decisions made by the police headquarters and the prefect. He also gave his "all his support" the prefect Didier Lallement, whose methods of maintaining order have been the subject of much criticism.

He also stated that 2,700 of the 79,000 tickets sold had not been activated. The minister said that he was sorry for spectators without tickets and expressed regret for those who were forced to miss the match by using tear gas.

Massive and industrial fraud was the root cause of Saturday's situation. The stadium was thronged with between 30,000 and 40,000 British fans, many of whom arrived without tickets or with fake tickets. 70% of tickets that were presented for prescreening were fake. pic.twitter.com/XUU92z3s0N

Amelie Oudea–Castera, Minister of Sports, said that these ticket holders would receive "compensation". In light of the 2023 Rugby World Cup in France and the 2024 Olympic Games, she also highlighted the need to "strengthen management of major events".

After the speech by his interior colleague, the minister stated that "we have seen that it was necessary to improve afortiori in risky match, on certain aspects management of flows leaving transport in the areas of first filtering and second filtering". She continued, "We have another project to secure that electronic ticketing is systematized and that fraud prevention measures are in place at the ticketing office."

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister's spokesperson, said that he was "extremely disappointed” by Monday's treatment of English supporters. He said, "The fans deserve the truth" and urged UEFA to reveal "disturbing images".

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