'Shameful' treatment of Liverpool fans at football final compared to Sheffield Hillsborough Disaster

David Hughes, a Liverpool fan who was at the game with his daughter, told The Guardian that poor organisation and attempts to blame the fans for problems echoed the Hillsborough disaster in which his father, Eric Hughes, died in April 1989, one of 97 fans killed.

“The first thing they do is blame the fans,” he said.

Lou Brookes, whose brother Andrew died at Hillsborough, said the treatment of fans on Saturday “brought back everything” from the disaster 33 years ago, including what police said.

Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson called the blaming of fans “shameful”.

Carl Markham, reporting on the match for the Press Association said: “Organisational chaos led to hundreds of fans missing the kick-off as, with huge queues building outside, French police locked one of the main gates at the Liverpool end and then pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed supporters, including children and the disabled, pressed up against the fence with nowhere to go.

“It was a concerning image for anyone, but for a club with Liverpool's tragic history at Hillsborough there were understandably many people traumatised by the situation.

“Frustration had been brewing for a couple of hours as the tactic of herding the majority of Reds supporters through an underpass partially strategically-blocked by police vehicles only added to the delay in getting to the ground.

“That did lead to a handful of people either climbing the fence or running through gates in an attempt to get inside, but not all were travelling fans and some appeared to be locals chancing their arm.

“It prompted law enforcement to shut down the entrance for more than 45 minutes and one former Liverpool player inside the gate had his phone glued to his ear for over an hour as he spoke to his tearful son stuck in the scary situation outside.”

According to Markham: “the ramifications of what transpired outside the Stade de France are likely to rumble on for some time, with the club rightly requesting a formal investigation at the shameful scenes, furious their security concerns were not heeded and that UEFA blamed the late arrival of fans for a kick-off delayed by 36 minutes”.

Read this: Buses diverted because of anti-social behaviour

Read this: Police make more arrests in shooting