If anyone missed the Panorama program 'The Champions League Final: What Went Wrong?' tonight, it can be viewed here:-
www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001d84s/panorama-the-champions-league-final-what-went-wrong
or here - www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001d84s
For anyone outside the UK / or not great with VPNs... it can be seen here - www.soccercatch.com/shows/862826809/the-champions-league-final---what-went-wrong
A few words from Dan Austin...
'What I hope people took from #bbcpanorama tonight is that the authorities treat football fans like animals.
When their tactics fail they lie and shift blame. Fans of all teams will continue to be treated with disdain and violence by those in power if they are not held accountable.
Supporters have been unequivocally exonerated by the French senate report. No fan of Liverpool or Real Madrid was to blame for the fiasco #bbcpanorama.
UEFA and the French state cannot be trusted to organise major sporting events as things stand. People are not safe in their care.
What's more, the film makes exceptionally clear that people would have died had fans not behaved so well and helped one another in the face of state-sanctioned violence from the French authorities.
I hope everyone who went to the match knows that and takes pride/comfort in it.'
^ https://twitter.com/_Dan_Austin/status/1582092612441231360
Speaking honestly, I don't want to watch that or remember anything about it so skipped watching it, but reading that I feel I have to as I think it will give me some closure.
What I hate about saying that, is that this was not Hillsborough and I feel I have no right to be as aggrieved as I am, because I came home unscathed and no-one was killed. Also, some people I talked to in the queue at turnstile A during all this going on and indeed afterwards were there and I am not even fit to breathe their air, let alone feel wronged. Even putting this on here takes some doing for that very reason as I feel I'm being massively overdramatic, but I cannot help but remember how absolutely petrified I was that day worrying about whether my mate and his lad was OK at Turnstile Z (I swapped my ticket with them to make sure they sat together - I still shudder to think that they could have been hurt, especially as I had badgered them into going) and whether or not anything terrible was going to happen to those around me. Those feelings will never leave me.
Incidentally, to show that this is not just about football and how the French authorities are unable to be trusted, on the Sunday I went to the Parc De Prince and wandered around there to kill some time before coming back. I got talking to a middle-aged American couple who were there for the French Open at Roland Garros and was appalled to hear that they said there had been armed muggings there and the police done nothing about it - in fact they said the French Police were conspicuously absent. Hindsight says that it should never have been played there with two major global sporting events running at the same time, but even so, they had plenty of time to prepare so should have carried it off, but they are utterly incapable
Had huge plans to go to the Rugby World Cup next year and the Olympics in 2024, but I will be fucked if I will set foot in that place again, but there is nothing to say anything other than the whole thing will be a total shitshow.
Again, sorry guys one and all for putting my ramblings here, but I've not talked about it to anyone since I posted in the aftermath and hearing this was coming up just brought back a whole lot of things that I've suppresed. Hope by watching the re-run, it will allow me to realise how lucky I was and put this to bed as best I can.
