Jurgen Klopp has now acknowledged that some members of his family were among the crowd of spectators trying to get into Parc des Princes.
Klopp avoided discussing the 1-0 loss to Carlo Ancelotti’s side
The 2022 Champions League final will be remembered for Real Madrid’s 14th Champions League trophy, but it will also be remembered for the issues with Liverpool fans before the game. Jurgen Klopp has now acknowledged that some members of his family were among the crowd of spectators trying to get into Parc des Princes. The German coach described what happened on May 28 in an interview via the club’s official website. Still, he avoided discussing the 1-0 loss to Carlo Ancelotti’s side and instead focused on the fear that some of his family members felt before entering the stadium. “There are different things to talk about,’ said Klopp. “Some of them, I think, it makes no sense to talk about because there is an ongoing investigation. There is the other part of what I did know, even if I didn’t know a lot immediately after the game.”
There were a lot of spots occupied definitely by people without tickets
“But a situation outside? I heard first-hand from my family because they were in the middle of everything. They texted me before the game, ‘We are in, good luck’ stuff like this, but they were pretty much one-and-a-half hours away from being in the stadium. What happened to them happened to everyone, pretty much. Two or three people I spoke to were lucky; they got in and were waiting. Then there were all the issues throughout the game. People are sitting on seats next to them (that weren’t theirs). They were looking: ‘what are you doing here?’ There was not one Liverpool supporter in the wrong spot. There were a lot of spots occupied definitely by people without tickets, but they were not Liverpool supporters.”
Losing the game against Real Madrid was actually the least of the issues that evening in the French capital
Reviewing what transpired in Paris, Klopp concluded that, given how weary his wife appeared to be due to what had occurred, losing the game against Real Madrid was actually the least of the issues that evening in the French capital. “These kinds of things need to be sorted and clarified, definitely,’ said Klopp. “First and foremost, for the reason that it cannot happen again. I think we were fortunate that more did not happen. We have to make sure it does not happen again at all. As I said: the smallest problem after a game like this is that we lost the game. It says it all. Everyone, the authorities, must ensure this does not happen again. It was clear where it was a problem.”
“I think the authorities would have known about the regional issues there in Paris. Anyway, UEFA decided pretty quickly that it would be in Paris. This is not the first time UEFA and Paris have worked together. I’m 100 per cent sure that nobody made a mistake intentionally. It’s not that everyone thought, ‘Ah, pfft, who cares how supporters get in!” But the mistakes still happened – now we have to sort it.”