Events
Roman Kemp says Liverpool supporters did “absolutely nothing wrong” on his return from Champions League Final
3 years ago
Roman Kemp has detailed the âreally, really scaryâ moment that he was tear gassed ahead of the Champions League final in France at the weekend.
The 29-year-old said there was âhostility straightawayâ from French police after he arrived at the Stade de France in Paris on Saturday.
Speaking on his Capital Breakfast show on Monday, Kemp urged authorities to investigate discrimination âagainst Liverpool fansâ.
He said police funnelled the thousands of Liverpool fans through a narrow alleyway, which was under a metre wide and had a concrete wall on either side, causing one of his friends to have a panic attack.
And he accused officers of laughing at fans before tear gassing them.
He said: âNo one is kicking off and then all of a sudden, tear gas starts getting thrown at us. All of a sudden, the pepper spray starts coming out from the top, right around the gates, and all those types of things.
âAnd people are panicking. There were boys there. Young kids were in there. People (were) trying to hold up their kids.â
Kemp said he saw one fan, who was with his visually impaired father, being pushed by police.
He said ânothing was happeningâ to provoke officersâ response, adding: âIt was the worst experience Iâve ever had in a football ground.â
The presenter said he saw upstanding behaviour from fans all weekend, with Liverpool supporters ârespectful of the ownersâ at every bar he went into ahead of the match, which saw Spanish giants Real Madrid win 1-0.
He added: âThey werenât spilling out on to the street. It was great. Honestly, they were sticking to their areas. There was no trouble. I didnât see one fight or anything that people associate with âfootball hooliganismâ and things like that. There was nothing. (Everyone was) really, really polite.â
Kemp said he has been âreally annoyedâ at tweets suggesting Liverpool fans were to blame.
He added: âIâm not a Liverpool fan but Iâll tell you right now, they did absolutely nothing wrong.
âAnd it was just so, so horrendous. It was discriminatory against Liverpool fans.
âAnd the reason I say that they should investigate it is because when we got in there, all the Real Madrid fans were in there and the Liverpool fans were not in there at all. It was crazy. It was absolutely crazy.
âAnd then they have the cheek of it to say, âOh, the gameâs kicked off (late) because of the late arrival of fansâ. It wasnât! They wouldnât let you in! It was really, really scary.â
Franceâs sports minister Amelie Oudea-Castera blamed fans with fake tickets for causing the chaos.
British MPs have called for an investigation amid condemnation of the way the Premier League clubâs supporters were treated, with Ian Byrne, Labour MP for Liverpool West Derby, who attended the match, saying he has not witnessed such scenes since the 1989 Hillsborough disaster.
He has written to Foreign Secretary Liz Truss with a list of seven demands, including a formal probe and apologies, aimed at UEFA and the French authorities.
Capital Breakfast with Roman Kemp airs weekdays from 6â10am on Capital and Global Player.