- Paris will host the Olympic Games two years after the chaos in the Champions League final
- Organizers admit the ugly scenes at the Stade de France were a ‘wake-up call’
- Concerns about the safety of the Paris Games have increased in recent months
The Paris 2024 chief has promised that the thousands of Team GB followers will be safe at this summer’s Olympics – and that there will be no repeat of the horrors experienced by Liverpool fans in the city.
Hundreds of Reds supporters were injured or traumatized after being locked outside the Stade de France and tear-gassed ahead of the 2022 Champions League final against Real Madrid.
The kick-off was delayed by 36 minutes, with an independent report saying that organizational failures ‘almost led to disaster’ and that it was ‘remarkable that no one lost their lives’.
Etienne Thobois, CEO of Paris 2024, admits that those ugly scenes at the Stade France – where the athletics will take place this summer – were a ‘wake-up call’ ahead of the Olympic Games.
And he has taken steps to reassure British fans – who have bought almost 500,000 tickets for the Games – that such chaos will “never happen again” as they will have an “unprecedented” security operation in six months.
There were scenes of chaos as Liverpool fans struggled to reach the final in Paris in 2022
Liverpool fans were cleared of wrongdoing despite initially being found guilty by authorities
“Everything went wrong that night,” Thobois said when asked by Mail Sport about security concerns after the events of two years ago.
‘It was a wake-up call for the authorities and for ourselves. We want to learn from that. We have been cooperating with the authorities and the security situation will be unprecedented.
‘If you want to welcome the world, with the ambition we have of a spectacular Games in the center of the city, then safety is the first thing you think of, because that ambition is not possible if you cannot guarantee safety and security. .
“We are working very carefully to ensure that what happened that night will never happen again.”
British fans have secured almost 500,000 tickets for next summer’s Olympic Games in Paris
The largest security operation will take place around the opening ceremony on July 26, which will be the first time that it will not take place in a stadium.
The spectacle will take place along the River Seine, where a fleet of boats will transport the athletes and around 400,000 spectators will watch for free from the shore, while another 100,000 pay for tickets.
More than 35,000 police officers will be deployed in Paris that night, while there will also be a new anti-drone laser system due to the risk from bomb-carrying drones.
“I can tell you that the government and ourselves are involved every day,” Thobois added. “No stone is left unturned, there is no building that has not been scrutinized.”