French sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera has apologised for the 'successive failures' that led to Liverpool fans being mistreated at the Champions League final last month.
The game had to be pushed back after supporters had issues entering the Stade de France. In order to control the crowds, French police used heavy-handed tactics and even deployed tear gas.
In the aftermath, the authorities have claimed that the issues were caused by a significant number of false tickets - something which has been strongly refuted by sources on the ground.
The chaos is currently subject of an independent investigation by UEFA and in the meantime, Oudea-Castera has issued an apology to the Liverpool supporters who travelled to Paris.
"First and foremost, I would like to sincerely apologise to the Liverpool fans whose evening was ruined. We are conscious of the fact that many of them came from far away, often with their family and sometimes even young children, to support their team and attend a memorable game of football," a letter seen by The Times read.
"We regret that some of them had to witness scenes that have no place at all at a sporting event, all the more so as we are aware that it may have brought back particularly painful memories from your club’s history."
The apology represents a significant U-turn from the sports minister who previously blamed a mass gathering of fans outside the stadium for the issues.
This comes after the Paris' police chief also conceded that mistakes had been made in the security operation for the final.
Source : 90min