Champions League final inquiry chairman brands Darmanin's claims of '40,000 ticketless fans' as 'bullsh*t'

Francois-Noel Buffet, the chairman of the inquiry that is looking into the events in Madrid, has branded the claims of the French interior minister as 'bullsh*t'.

Gerald Darmanin, the French interior minister, had blamed '40,000 ticketless' Liverpool fans as the root cause of the events at the Stade de France.

"The major problem comes from the minister of the interior, who lied," Buffet said. "Following the events, he told us bull****. That is what sparked the fire. If he had admitted to mistakes and apologised, there would have been no huge controversy.

"Initially, [Darmanin] told us there were 30,000 fake tickets. In the end, only 2,800 fake tickets were counted [by UEFA]. He had also said that it was the fault of the English, who had caused all the carnage.

"This is not true in reality. The English were not responsible. They have nothing to do with it. It was the poor organisation [of the match] that caused all the difficulties that were encountered, in particular the [security] controls at the stadium."