The Senate has not released the report as of the writing of this report.
Senator Laurent Lafon, president of the Commission on Culture, Education and Communication – which co-authored the report – blamed the violent scenes at the finale on “a series of malfunctions that occurred within a rather vague administrative and decision-making framework”.
“It’s not the number of people who were near the stadium that caused this disruption,” he said. “It didn’t go badly because there were Liverpool fans accompanying their team.”
The senators blamed the lack of “anticipation” from several institutions, including the French police and European football’s governing body UEFA. Senator François-Noël Buffet, president of the Senate Judiciary Commission, which co-authored the report, specifically pointed to the failure of the review process.
“It only took 10,000 to 15,000 people to make the screening process impossible. Even if there weren’t more fans than there were seats in the stadium, the situation could have been the same, causing the same chaos and leading to tragedies, which we were fortunate to have.” This omission is therefore due to the decisions of the police,” Buffett said.
The number of counterfeit tickets was “10 times the usual average” according to Lafon, saying that “UEFA’s ticketing management has proved inadequate”.
Lafon also contradicted the arguments put forward by French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, “namely that the unrest caused was related to a massive crowd and an extensive number of fake tickets”. He added that “both of these arguments exist, but they are not the cause of the disturbances”.
“Of course we express our regret and apologies for what happened,” Lafon said, adding that the supporters were “real victims” of the chaos.
The treatment of fans by the French authorities appointed to the game in May drew widespread criticism. Photos and videos circulating on social media show Liverpool supporters crammed into fenced off areas and tear gas being used by police.
In early June, UEFA apologized “to all spectators who experienced or witnessed terrifying and harrowing events leading up to the game”. In addition, the governing body said it had carried out an independent review to “identify deficiencies and responsibilities of all those involved in the organization of the final”, with a final report to be published on UEFA’s website.