Six Months After Champions League Final, Liverpool Fans Still Devastated

Some Liverpool fans are still too afraid to watch games live six months after the turmoil that endangered lives at the Champions League final in Paris. The atmosphere at Anfield, one of football's most recognizable venues, has been dubbed "terrible" this season by local member of parliament and supporter Ian Byrne, who claims that others look to be watching their heroes "under anesthesia."

The May 28 Real Madrid victory at the Stade de France was overshadowed by the activities surrounding the championship game of European football. As supporters struggled to enter the stadium after being forced into packed bottlenecks on approach, kickoff was delayed by 37 minutes.

Then, when thousands of fans were confined behind metal gates around the stadium, police began to use tear gas. The images for many Liverpool supporters brought back memories of the 97 fatal fan crush at Hillsborough Stadium in 1989.

"I think we’re still all suffering from the after effects of the final," Joe Blott, chair of Liverpool supporters group Spirit of Shankly, told AFP. "Many people I know and other people are struggling to get to the game now as a consequence of the crowd management.

"Them not wanting to go to the game because they've been to a game is tragic in its own way."

 Although there were no fatalities in the French capital, the authorities' lack of preparation for the game and their subsequent mudslinging at fans exacted a physical and psychological toll.

"So many people are still damaged by what they experienced," said Byrne. "I think the atmosphere at Anfield is reflective of that. It’s been awful this season and that’s not down to the football, it’s been really strange. " I feel people are at the game under anaesthetic. It feels like all the passion has been sucked out."

"The reason there wasn’t a worse disaster is because of the behaviour and experience of Liverpool fans," added Blott. "For generations, Liverpool fans have learned the lessons of Hillsborough. Why haven’t the authorities? "People were telling people to calm down, people were saying 'make sure you breathe', 'don’t climb over', 'let’s look after the kids'.

All of that was by lessons learned and all of that was by football fans. I think football fans saved lives." Despite thousands of fans being kept for hours outside the stadium prior to kickoff, UEFA blamed the match's delayed start on fans "arriving late." The French government then asserted that the issue was "industrial scale fraud" involving fraudulent tickets.

However, a French Senate investigation in July discovered that rather than fan behavior, the mayhem was caused by a lack of preparation by French authorities and UEFA, as well as by poorly executed security procedures.

An independent investigation of the conclusion ruled that the French police's use of tear gas without cause "constituted criminal assault." Ahead of the Rugby World Cup in 2019 and the Olympic Games in 2024, both of which will feature events at the Stade de France, images from the championship match damaged France's reputation for hosting important sporting events. But there is anger about the inaction in putting the Senate report's recommendations into practice.

"Nobody’s safety can be guaranteed because nobody has accepted responsibility for something that was really serious and humiliating on an international stage for the whole country," said Liverpool fan and journalist Daniel Austin, who was at the Stade de France on the night of the final.

"The Senate report makes it clear that the behaviour of fans was not at any point a problem and the failures lie with the authorities. They could easily repeat them again because no measures have been put in place to deal with them."