France’s justice minister has apologised for blaming Liverpool fans for the 2022 Champions League final chaos.
Gerard Darmanin was serving interior minister at the time of the game at the Stade de France which saw supporters impacted by organisational failings.
Thousands of Reds fans were pepper sprayed by police at the stadium gates after being held in hours-long queues before their team faced Real Madrid.
Kick-off in the showpiece fixture was delayed by 36 minutes due to the issues while fans were mugged and attacked by locals in Saint-Denis after the game.
Darmanin initially claimed ticketless fans had caused the build-up outside the turnstiles – something a French Senate report debunked just two months later.
But in an interview with the ‘Legend’ channel on YouTube, he publicly apologised to Liverpool fans affected for wrongly smearing them.
He said: “Yes, it was a failure.
“Because I hadn’t checked what was happening properly, which was my mistake, and because I gave in to preconceived ideas.
“The culprit was easy [to designate], and I apologise to Liverpool fans. Of course, they were right to [feel upset].
“During my first public outing, I said what I was told, which was: ‘Well, the English are causing mayhem’. It wasn’t true in the literal sense of the word.
“Our security system wasn’t designed for that at all. The CRS (riot police), mobile gendarmes with big boots and shields, they’re not great for running.
“We got our system wrong. We were expecting a hooligan war, and instead we got people who came to steal.”