The Paris police chief admitted on Thursday that French government officials who estimated that between 30,000-40,000 Liverpool fans at the Champions League final had fake tickets may have been off the mark.
French interior minister Gerald Darmanin infuriated Liverpool supporters when he blamed “fraud at an industrial level” for the ugly scenes outside Stade de France ahead of last month’s Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
Darmanin added: “Figures corroborate that 30,000 to 40,000 without tickets or with fake tickets” were near the stadium, a claim that was repeated by other French government officials.
Kickoff of the game was delayed as fans were crushed together while being denied entry to the stadium, causing chaotic scenes that included police teargassing fans.
Testifying in front of the French senate, Paris police chief Didier Lallement confessed that the widely disputed figure provided by himself and other government officials may have been incorrect.
“I might have been wrong on the figure of 30,000 to 40,000 thousand I gave to the [interior] minister,” Lallement said.
“From an operational standpoint, it doesn’t change anything if it was around 40,000 or 30,000 or 20,000.”
Lallement also apologized for his police force’s use of teargas, though he insisted that it was necessary to avoid fans being injured or even killed in a crush of people.
“It was obviously a failure, because people were pushed around or attacked even though we owed them security,” Lallement said.
“I am fully aware that people acting in good faith, even families, were teargassed,” he added. “For this I am very sorry. But there was no other way.”