After the incidents at the Champions League final, don’t ever go back to Saint-Denis and the Stade de France

Better late than never. Real Madrid’s statement demanding explanations for the unacceptable events in Saint-Denis, at the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool finally arrived. The complaints from the Madrid supporters were as keenly felt as they were justified. Never before at a European Cup final, of the 17 the Spanish giants have played in their history, have their fans been so humiliated, attacked, robbed and threatened as in the descent into hell just 13.8 kilometres from the Arc de Triomphe. In Paris there exists an alternative reality that French President Macron and UEFA boss Ceferin decided to ignore when they chose the Stade de France as the host stadium for the game after the required change caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine (it was originally to be held in Saint Petersburg).

Fans attacked as they left the Stade de France

Well, what the 20,000 Madrid fans and many Liverpool supporters went through could hardly have been worse than it would have been in the city on the Baltic. France’s Interior Minister must be made to apologise for the disastrous security organisation. The police ignored everything that happened outside the first security ring outside the stadium and the thieves from Saint-Denis, organised into groups to rob and steal, nicked tickets, wallets, mobiles… And at the end of the game, the fans were trapped on their way to the Metro, suffering continued violent incidents, with families with children attacked, hurt and upset. I’ll never go back to Saint-Denis. Don’t even think of going there for the Paris Olympic Games…