It wasn't meant to be like this. It wasn't meant to be like this at all. I was supposed to be at the Stade De France with my banner, having got a ticket for a few hundred quid, watching Liverpool win number 7 among 50,000 jubilant reds singing our heads off. Instead, here I am in the living room of my Airbnb watching the second half with Jonathan from Venezuela and trying not to disturb the other guests.
I watch most of the first half on my phone in the back of an Uber having decided to leave the fan park at Cours De Vincennes before the game, I had come all the way to Paris for, had even kicked off. My driver is Thierro, he is French but family are from Senegal, he speaks better English than me. He asks what is going on and I explain but I'm surprised he doesn't know. He says he used to play football, a midfielder "like Steven Gerrard". He is still a very young man. Thierro is my second attempt at ordering an Uber to flee the overcrowded area near Nation metro station. I've actually been in this very area before. My wife and I came to Paris one January about 12 years ago, it was so far below zero degrees celsius, they had to close the Eiffel Tower because the lift was frozen. We took a recommendation from TripAdvisor to go to a restaurant beside Nation and not sure if it was that meal or something else (not alcohol) but we were both very ill the next day. Today, the area has been taken over by Liverpool fans. It feels like half of the city are here, there are kopites everywhere, a sea of red awaits me as I emerge upstairs from the train to a blue sky and a red tide. They are on the grass drinking and basking in the sun, on top of the statue singing, in the trees hanging banners, all having a wonderful time ahead of a tenth European Cup Final later that night in the city of light. I'm looking for the stage where The Lightning Seeds, Jamie Webster and John Power are performing. I'm told this isn't even the fan park, they're not letting anyone else in there. It's after 3pm and the event started at one. I've brought my Lumix G7 camera with the aim of making a bit of a documentary about another famous European final, I'm on my own and need something to pass the time. My Aussie mate who organised this trip in March has backed out as there's no chance of a reasonably priced ticket. I walk around through the throng of reds who are downing beers and emptying the songbook one more time in a season like no other. The square we are in is in the middle of a circle with 5 or 6 avenues feeding into it, like a clock face. The avenues are all sealed off by police. One thoroughfare, Cours De Vincennes has a stage half way down it with tens of thousands of Liverpool fans watching the entertainment provided. I can hear Ian Broudies band but I can't see them. All around the park are more fans sitting along the road, inside and outside bars. I see a bandstand with the daddy of all banners draped over it - Them Scousers Again. I hang mine beside it, set my camera up and go for a wander. The atmosphere is celebratory, the culmination of a long hard season with 2 cups in the bag but narrowly losing out on the league. Tonight is to be the grand finale in the city where we won number three, 41 years ago, against the same opposition. What worries me is that Madrid haven't lost one since. 3-1 was the score line when we lost to them in Kiev 4 years ago and a lot of supporters think we will complete the revenge that Salah so badly wants by inflicting that score on them in 2022. After a few laps weaving in and out of the red army, I see some people trying to get into the fan park and I follow them in past the police on Avenue Du Trone. It is now about 4pm and many of the lucky fans with tickets and probably some without start to leave there to head to the stadium. In the fan park, Jamie Webster is on stage now, confirming the game will be shown there then conducting the fans through the songs they'd sung at the 2 finals before and since. He tells everyone to put their flags down so he can see the whole way to the back of the crowd. I'm not sure he could, even from the stage. I stay for a while and soak it in then I go for a feed in a bar restaurant called Le Triomphe, its the closest I get to the sights all weekend. There is an off license next door with constant red traffic in and out of it.
When I leave the restaurant and walk back across the road, the packed square outside the fan park is empty and all that is left is the litter of a days drinking. It reminds me of a university house my friends lived in where they had to keep moving the living room (the sofa and tv) as each room became uninhabitable because none of them would clean and by the end of the year they had moved up to the top bedroom forcing the guy who was in it to move back home. The mess is extensive and I can see locals walking or cycling about looking visibly upset and gesturing - look at this, who is going to tidy this up? It will still be like that when I leave the area 3 hours later. I'm not telling the City of Paris what to do but if that was a huge event in Ireland or Northern Ireland - something like the big concerts at Slane Castle, the clean up would begin as soon as the fans moved from there to the game or into the fan park proper. Just another example of poor event management I feel. Also now the police presence feels larger possibly because they had previously been dwarfed by the numbers of people here to cheer on Klopps men. In fairness, 2 out of 3 of the gendarmes that I speak to during the day are pleasant enough and try to answer my questions in English. I go back for my banner, now hanging alone, those scousers again away to the game. I go into the fan park, still about 3 hours before kick off. People who have been there all day sit on the ground eating or taking a breather before we go again for the big one. There are nowhere near enough toilets with long queues for about only ten portaloos while the couple of urinal trees are overflowing, sending a steady stream of pissboiler piss along the kerb and out of the park. If you're drunk you quickly forget these things until the next time you have to use it but sober it leaves an indelible image. I hang my banner as far away from there as possible beside a Dubai Reds one then I go across to a bar and queue for the bog there. I get talking to a scouser in the line, I can hardly understand him and he can barely make out what I'm saying. Among the - you what mates? and the - what is its? I hear that his brother is away to the stadium and willing to pay £2500 for a ticket. This blows out of the water what a few others quoted me, £1000 - £1200. I love LFC but I'd have to be earning a lot more money to pay anything like that. I head back over to the fan park which is now swelling with reds and non reds - local french people joining the party I assume. I stay for another while and watch each teams road to the final on the big screen then find the creeping tiredness from a very busy week and another early start this morning is beginning to wipe me out. I go to the supermarche and get a red bull and a few packs of chewing gum as someone told me recently its the best thing to keep you awake. I neck the red bull and chew some gum then head back in again. The numbers have increased further, I'm about 30 yards back from where my banner is. It's about an hour and a half before kick off and I start looking for team news. My mates message me on our Paris 22 group to see how the only person who actually went is getting on - why don't you go the stadium and try and get a ticket? Well, (1.) it took me that long to negotiate the train to here (2.) I don't really want to go back on trains on my own and (3.) Its just not a good idea. As much as I'd love to go to the match, I'm not going on another wing and a prayer. I had no idea what was unfolding in Saint-Denis at this point. Team news is in and it's as we expected Konate, Van Dijk, Fabinho and Thiago all start. The crowd grows further still, everyone has arrived back from bars or getting food or just arrived full stop. There are a lot of kids with one or both parents, some are only toddlers. There's a young pregnant Irish girl with her partner, I assume and a banner heralding the ticketless reds. What I also notice for the first time among the hoards is the number of nationalities represented in Paris – fans have come all the way here with no ticket just to be as close to a European final as possible. This isn’t a new thing but it is now something that UEFA and the host country have had to acknowledge and these fan parks have been a welcome addition since 2018 in Kiev. Today there are accents from different parts of England (and possibly Wales), Scotland, Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. I hear French, Spanish, German, Arabic (I don’t recall seeing many or any from the Far East which is unusual for Liverpool games) I’d love to know how many different nationalities are here. More and more arrive and I’m having to move further back to see the screen. It’s about an hour from kick off and the Canal + Champions League Final broadcast has begun. Is that Florent Sinama Pongolle doing the sections from the stadium? Apparently it is. The area around me gets more and more congested, there are some who are now so hammered they can barely speak but want to have a conversation with me. I step back from this pointlessness and look for some space further away and realise the fan park is almost full to the entrance gate where they were routinely patting people down and checking bags. Now, they’ve stopped letting people in again. I see a few scouse men and one of their lads, who is about 9, debate whether to stay or leave, I’m having similar thoughts myself. I see some fans sitting along the barriers on the right and I consider joining them for a while – is this game ever going to start? People are climbing up on the traffic lights, that overhang on the avenue when it’s a normal road, flashing amber all day. Kids climb up on the barriers, on bins, anywhere to get a better vantage point. The excitement is building, the red bull and chewing gum has kicked in. There is a big roar when the players come out to warm up in the stadium only miles away. I’m not really paying attention, still distracted about whether to stay or go and if I go, where do I go because I'm not getting back in. Train, no, definitely not, could hardly get around in broad daylight, it's getting dark and have seen lots of stuff on twitter about fans getting mugged last night. Try and get into a bar? They’re all packed around here and again, I'm afraid of getting mugged if I start wandering around looking for one. I sit tight and watch people with the same dilemma either leave or disappear into the fan park faithful. Then a message flashes up on the screen that the game is delayed, they must have put it up in English as well as I would have no idea what that would be in French or maybe I just read 21.15 kick off time now. Is this game ever going to start? Not long after, a fella behind me asks are we one or two hours ahead of home or why isn't the game starting at 9. I explain to him why and a man with him, possibly his dad says its probably all the ones trying to blag in. There is a tweet on twitter of a fully grown man bragging about getting his dad into the stadium with no ticket. The many enemies of LFC will latch on to this as an example of what they think happened when the shit hit the fan. There are a lot of Liverpool fans here so there's bound to be a few dickheads trying to pull shit like this. However, it's up to the authorities to be prepared and stop them from having any chance of getting in with no ticket. Margaret Thatcher famously couldn't understand why everybody in the UK wasn't a self starter like her. Other club fans are asking why any of us are there without tickets - because we'd all love to be at the game and this is the closest thing to it. We are different. My wife messages me that there is trouble outside the stadium, BT broadcast team hoping fans are ok and then a few more messages from different friends asking where I am, advising caution. Night descends and the crowd heaves I start to think about the nightmare of getting out of there after the game. At least I’d be relatively safe in a crowd but how long would it take to get all these people on trains? It could be another 2-3 hours whenever the final finished. There are more and more non Liverpool fans around too and they could all be lovely people but I'm starting to feel uncomfortable. Then I get a message saying tear gas at the stadium and my mind is made up, I’m out of here and back to the air bnb. If something has kicked off there, chances are something similar could happen here.
I book an uber, amazingly it says it will be here in a few minutes, now I have to find the pick up place. I go out of the park through a clear area of wide pavement that leads to a police checkpoint at the end of the avenue facing the square. A lot of people have gathered. I'm not sure if they're fans or locals but they are remonstrating with police. An older woman points at the mess and complains to the policeman in riot gear who is stopping people getting into the fan park. I walk out past them and realise that this sealed off avenue is where my uber is supposed to pick me up, the driver phones me, he doesn’t speak much English and I have near zero French, I make out that he is on Picpus and I stick this into Google maps. I walk past another battalion of riot police although they don't have helmets on yet, I’m suspicious of anyone not in Liverpool regalia of which there seems to be more and more with the vast majority of reds fans in the ticketless zone or at the game. Google maps takes me through the heavily littered square that now has people searching through the wreckage for money, alcohol, champions league final tickets - who knows what they will find. A couple of people sitting on a bench try to say something to me, I put my head down and walk on, maps is taking me to the street below where Le Triomphe is, I sort of half know where I am now. I walk past Le Triomphe and see the teams walking out onto the pitch on the big screen in there, I head on down towards the traffic going from left to right on Picpus, there are some shady looking dudes around here now. I look for a black car but they're all black, I check the number plate on the app and see that my car is now driving away but it won't get far in this traffic. I run alongside, the driver gestures that I'm too late, he has another fare. Ah come on, man. I look at the app and see that Thierro is on his way instead but he is 7 minutes away and he is going to Avenue Du Trone. I message him to come to Avenue Dorian and Picpus. The game! I run back up to Le Triomphe and I'm trying to watch the game through the window (along with a crowd 6 deep all the way round) but people keep standing up inside and we all groan as we can't see the screen. One of the fans outside has given up and is holding up his phone so we can watch it during the times when those inside stand up and block the screen. This is ridiculous but Thierro is here so I leave Cours De Vincennes for the last time.
Jonathan is a Liverpool fan who has travelled all the way from Venezuela to see Liverpool in a Champions League Final in Paris. Actually, he came to Europe a couple of weeks before because he was lucky enough to get a ticket in the UEFA ballot for the Europa League Final - he paid 80 euro and he sold it in Seville for 800 (he's not sure if it was a Rangers or Frankfurt fan) with the intention of using that money to pay for a Champions League Final ticket. Unfortunately he would need about 4 times that to buy one and even then you're taking a risk. Thankfully, there's no word of any serious trouble or injury at the stadium. Little do I know that has only narrowly been avoided. Liverpool don't end the first half well and there is a mix up in the 18 yard box, the ball pinballs between the outstretched hand of Alisson, off Konate and back off the keeper towards a Madrid player who might have a tap in but he's sandwiched between tackles by Konate and someone else in red, the ball ricochets to Benzema and he knocks it into the net. The flag goes up straight away but there is a long VAR check. I think it's offside but I'm afraid there might be a penalty for tackles on the Madrid player before it spills to the French superstar. Finally it is given as offside. For long periods, Real are under the cosh but every now and again they play their way up the field and this time in the second half they find room down the right, a shot come cross finds its way into the path of Vinicius Jnr who puts the ball into the net, the same side as Alan Kennedy did against them in 1981 albeit that was at Parc Des Princes not Stade De France which was built for the 1998 World Cup. There aren't many replays of the goal but I hoped he might have been offside though that hope is over when the game kicks off again and we're one nil down. Liverpool have plenty of the ball for the rest of the game. Klopp and Pep look a little lost in terms of how to change it. Sometimes you see us make a double sub around 60 minutes and it wins us the game but we only bring on Jota who has been horribly out of form since being replaced by Diaz at the start of the year. Keita and Firmino also enter the fray and we improve but Madrid just always seem to have someone in the right place to snuff out attacks and when we do get through mostly with Salah, Courtois is there to make the save. Liverpool players look at the clock with every failed attempt to go level, time won't stand still or even slow down a bit. Suddenly, it's a high ball over the top for Salah which he brings down brilliantly, he knocks the ball away from the defender, makes enough room for a shot with his right foot but he is denied superbly by the big Belgian keeper. It just looks like we are never going to score as Madrid defend stoutly then hit us on the break. They can't get the decisive second goal and I continue to believe if we can get one, that will break them, we will go on and win but Madrid hold on to incredibly become 14 time champions. I bid Jonathan good night and go to bed. I have never been so glad to hit the sack but the adrenaline and the red bull are still pumping through my system then I suddenly remember - I forgot to lift my fucking banner!
The next morning I check my phone and the true picture of what happened is revealed. We are lucky not to be mourning another disaster. Whatever system they had in place to get fans from trains to the stadium and checking tickets, failed miserably - creating long queues that hardly moved for 3 hours, leaving fans at the mercy of pickpockets, with police using pepper spray or tear gas for crowd control (even at the fan park for ticketless fans), keeping supporters out of the ground until well after kick off and coralling them into dangerous areas where they could be attacked on the way out . A lot of journalists who attended the game have corroborated reds fans stories and there is a plethora of video evidence from supporters phones. Liverpool have demanded an investigation and UEFA have begun one. This was my first European final and hopefully it won't be the last. It hasn't put me off but I wouldn't go again on my own.
Comments
Post a Comment