A first government investigation report on the incidents of May 28 at the Stade de France submitted to French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne on Friday concludes that there is a series of “failures” and deplores a police response to the incidents that have caused “serious damage to the picture of France”.
In his report, the interministerial delegate to the Olympics and major events, Michel Cadot regrets “highly publicized scenes of operations to restore order (…) which have raised questions from outside observers about our country’s ability to deliver and succeed in the major sporting events for which we will soon be responsible “.
Two years before the Olympics, the report recommends the establishment of a national steering body for international sporting events of major interest, on the model of that already in place for the Paris Olympics.
“Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has instructed the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of Sports and the Olympic and Paralympic Games to take up the recommendations it contains in order to implement them without delay”said Matignon in a press release.
Regarding the reasons for the failure, the 30-page document reviews the preparation, establishes a schedule for the evening, details the “malfunctions” and distributes the responsibilities of each, without overwhelming one or the other of the actors.
evoking a “embolism” and an “break” of the control and security system, the report considers that “the organizers and the police suffered” the crisis situation and point of “execution problems”.
For the interdepartmental delegate, the trigger remains the“poorly controlled influx of excess public without tickets or with counterfeit tickets, in unprecedented proportions”.
But he calls “relativize” the first version of the Minister of the Interior who had initially mentioned up to 40,000 English supporters without a valid ticket around the stadium.
On a more positive note, Michel Cadot recalls that 97% of the spectators were able to attend the match while the fan zones installed outside the enclosure did not pose any problem of disturbance to public order.
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