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‘It was just lies’: Jurgen Klopp expresses relief after Liverpool were cleared by independent panel of wrongdoing during last year’s Champions League final… insisting ‘we knew they were wrong’ over chaotic scenes outside the Stade from France
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits he is relieved the ‘lies’ from the chaos of last year’s Champions League final have been exposed after an independent UEFA panel cleared the club of any blame this week. .
European soccer’s governing body carried out its own review of stunts outside the Stade de France last May, causing the kick-off between Liverpool and Real Madrid to be delayed by 40 minutes when police fired tear gas at masses of fans.
French authorities and UEFA initially held Reds fans without tickets responsible for the chaotic events that occurred before the final, a narrative that was quickly dismissed by a series of sports mail reporters on the scene in Paris.
However, on Monday night, Liverpool supporters were officially cleared of any wrongdoing following UEFA’s own investigation, which stated that there was no evidence to support the agenda pursued by the French authorities in Paris to scapegoat them. .
Instead, he said the tactic was “reprehensible” and simply designed to avoid taking responsibility for the chaotic events that transpired that day.
Jurgen Klopp is relieved that the ‘lies’ of last year’s Champions League final have been exposed
UEFA commissioned a team to investigate chaotic events outside the Stade de France last May
The Liverpool fans were cleared of wrongdoing despite initially being found guilty by the authorities.
Klopp, whose team lost 1-0 to Madrid in that final, insists it was “very important” that the correct version of events be reflected in the UEFA report.
He said Liverpool website: ‘I think it’s super important that it’s finally official. Let me put it this way: I am not sure, at least in my life, there has never been a case with more evidence, where I knew more about [it] when he wasn’t directly involved, because he was on the other side of the wall in the stadium, more or less.
“But families, friends, they were all there and they all knew how our fans behaved.
“But it really feels good, it feels good that it’s now official and everyone knows it now because a lot of things were said after the game that we knew were wrong.”
They were just lies. So, I’m very happy that it’s finally officially said.
Leaked without Liverpool having a chance to digest it, UEFA’s 220-page report concludes with more than 20 recommendations for hosting and staging future events.
The Merseyside club have challenged them to make sure they go ahead to “do the right thing for the safety of the fans”, a message Klopp fully agrees with.
“Keep calm in a situation where no one can really keep calm, tear gas in the eyes, pressure from the front, from the side, from behind, being locked in among thousands of people and not pushing like crazy, keeping calm. calm down, it’s a huge thing to do and an extremely difficult thing to do,” he added.
‘And then coming out of it and being blamed for it, it’s horrible. It’s really awful. So there’s some work to be done and I hope they do it correctly because these kinds of events should be a pure joy to watch.
‘You pay a lot of money, it’s a lot of work to qualify, then you go there, it’s all a positive frame of mind and at the end you’re happy to somehow make it to the stadium when you did. When you first hear it, you can’t believe that all of that happened at the time, but it did.
“So, yeah, there’s a lot to improve and I hope everyone has learned from it.”