“A total of 219 people have been injured in clashes between football fans and police across France after Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) won the Champions League final against Arsenal.
“Eight were in a serious condition, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said. Thousands of officers were deployed to curb unrest that disrupted bus, train and rail services in the capital, Paris. Fifty-seven of them were injured.
“Nuñez said 780 people had been arrested over the violence, with more than 450 in custody. A person was found dead after an accident on Paris’s ring road, which rioters tried to block overnight.”
Of course, this sort of event does put a bit of a strain on local resources and causes the taxpayers to pay up quite a bit more cash. Reports suggest that around 6,000 police officers were “mobilised” for Sunday’s victory parade, which was apparently being held around the Eiffel Tower.
Obviously, this is no fault of Uefa and Fifa because they have told everyone that no matter what any football fans get up to anywhere at any time, it is not their issue to deal with and they cannot be held responsible. So there. Of course, not being held responsible is an issue that has yet to be tested in a French court. Everyone knew there would be a riot if the French team won, so maybe there was some responsibility somewhere.
The interior minister said, “We allow freedom of assembly, but not excesses,” and it may be time for the authorities in Paris to call it a day, since they had a lot of trouble last year when PSG won the trophy.
One of the problems comes with flares being set off, and electric bikes being set on fire, with shop fronts also being smashed in. So far, it seems the police have made 500 arrests. It seems that some of these French people can be awfully naughty at times. Still, I am sure they know what they are doing.
The rioting is being fully reported on the Telegraph website, but we can also see thatv the paper will never let go of its absolute dislike of Arsenal, as it now runs headlines such as
I am not quite sure how that headline fits in with the events of Sunday afternoon but I am sure the Telegraph writers have everything under control and fully balanced.