A Liverpool woman and her Hillsborough survivor dad have recounted their terrifying experiences at Saturday's Champions League Final in Paris.
Olivia Gilhooley and her dad David travelled to the French capital to watch their beloved team take on Real Madrid, but like so many Reds who made the trip, their dream turned into a nightmare. Having survived the horrors of the Hillsborough disaster, David suffers with PTSD and Olivia said the scenes of fans being forced into hugely dangerous spaces brought back some terrible memories.
Describing the scene outside the stadium, Olivia said: "We walked up the stairs out of the station and were greeted with a bottle neck of fans trying to get over a bridge. This appeared the only route to the stadium. There were no stewards or signs. There was a broken metal fence lying on the floor which we stepped over. It was at this point I began to feel unsafe."
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"I then noticed that the French police had blocked off the small roads leading up to the stadium, which I realise now is the reason for the bottle neck of fans. To have only the small bridge available as a passageway to the stadium from the metro stop was very concerning even 2.5 hours prior to kick off."
Olivia said she walked past numerous police and vans and high metal fences blocking more roads, she added: "I began feeling helpless. At this point I really picked up on the hostile atmosphere from the French police as well as the local Parisians that had shown up and were really intimidating."
"I then noticed that all fans were being directed only down the west side of the stadium like cattle through barrier after barrier. I thought to myself, why could we not walk around the outside of the stadium freely, like at Wembley?" Olivia and her dad were able to get into the stadium before the main problems outside the ground occurred, when thousands of Liverpool fans were held for hours in a dangerously small space and were attacked by police with tear gas and pepper spray.
She said that inside the stadium, about 20 minutes before kick-off she became alarmed at the number of empty Liverpool seats and how quiet the fans were. She said: "I now realise why they were quiet as they had been attacked on their way in to the stadium. What panicked me more was that on the big screen UEFA had stated ‘due to the late arrival of fans’. It was clear that this was the beginning of wrongly blaming Liverpool fans for the unprovoked violence they received. What fan would arrive late to the champions league final that they had worked tirelessly planning, travelling and spent their hard earned money on?"
News filtered through about how fans had been treated outside the ground. Olivia said: "It was only the morning after that I learnt that there had been crushes and resulting injuries. The reason for the crushes was that the French police had closed off 13 turnstiles and were refusing to let anyone in, with tickets, causing complete and utter panic to those outside the stadium who were then tear gassed and to those inside the stadium concerned about what was going on outside and fearing the worst as kick off was delayed by half an hour. This caused panic to friends and family back home."
Like many fans, Olivia and David felt very unsafe as they left the Stade de France after the match. She said the journey back to their hotel was 'incredibly scary' as local gangs circled.
Speaking about her dad, she added: "What made all this even more scary for us was that my father is a Hillsborough survivor who suffers with PTSD as a result. The events of Saturday 28th May at Stade De France were far too close to home. My father was terrified, as was I. Blaming fans for late arrival and causing crushes by the opening and closing of gates is a terrifying parallel to the Hillsborough disaster."
She added: "I am truly shocked that no one was killed. I did not attend the long awaited Liverpool FC parade yesterday for this reason and I will not be attending a UEFA final again. My partner collected me from the train station after the long journey home and I burst in to tears as I was so happy to be home safely. I then woke up in the middle of the night after an awful nightmare and was in tears again."
Like many LFC fans, Olivia was staggered to see comments from senior French ministers at a senate hearing yesterday, which sought to blame Liverpool supporters almost entirely for the chaos that ensued outside the ground. She said: "I was extremely shocked at how far fetched their smears were. It was really disturbing to watch."
