Liverpool fans finally receive indirect apology for Champions League final chaos

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has finally apologised for the chaos at the Champions League final…but not directly to Liverpool fans.

The senior government official admitted bad management was to blame for the carnage at the Stade de France, but showed little remorse directly towards the Reds fans he smeared in the aftermath of the final.

Darmanin had tried to shift the blame from the French authorities - as police tear-gassed innocent ticket-holders, including women and children - onto Liverpool supporters, to obscure the failure of police and officials under his control.

But speaking on Tuesday, when asked directly on TV if he would apologise as the true facts came to light, he said: "Should the Stade de France have been better managed? The answer is yes.

"Am I partly responsible? The answer is yes. Of course, I readily apologise towards everyone who suffered from this bad management of the event."

Darmanin openly lied about "ticketless fans" being to blame for the scenes at the stadium, where Liverpool fans were subjected to illegal and dangerous kettling, and then locked out and tear-gassed as they peacefully queued to enter.

The Interior Minister had initially claimed that 70 per cent of people present at the stadium were without tickets, a figure which would have amounted to almost 130,000 people.

He then revised that figure to 40,000 people with fake tickets, saying video evidence would prove his claim, and promising to deliver footage to the French senate.

But that footage was conveniently deleted, and accurate estimates based on real data showed only around 2,500 people were in the environs of the stadium without tickets.

Now, a month after the event, which could have caused serious harm or even death, but for the peaceful nature of the fans when subjected to extreme crushing by police barrages on the stadia approaches, Darmanin has changed his story again.

Now he seems to have taken aim at the French police who so brutally treated Liverpool fans, and suggested he would make changes - and could even replace controversial head of Paris police, Didier Lallement.

"We have just been in an election period so it has not been the time to throw around names like that,' Darmanin said when asked if he would sack the police chief. "I will firstly change the organisation.

'After comes the question of individuals. The chief of police was working on that night… it is certain we have changes to make to the organisation.

"I am the head of the administration [of the interior ministry] so I don't give out punishments. But perhaps in my office there exists the need for changes."