Newcastle United release statement revealing shocking truth behind French police's excessive force on Tuesday night
Newcastle United took around 3000 fans to France on Tuesday for the Champions League match against Marseille.
The Geordies were in good spirits before and even after the game, despite the defeat, but that quickly turned sour when the French police took it upon themselves to use excessive force to keep the fans inside the stadium.
Newcastle United had worked with UEFA, Marseille and the French police to devise a system which would see around 500 supporters at a time escorted out of the stadium around an hour after kick-off.
However, as noted in the club's statement, it was shortly after the first 500 left the stadium that the police took things way too far when exercising their duties.
Newcastle are taking the incident very seriously
Newcastle United are now going to liaise with UEFA and Marseille to launch a full investigation. The statement read as follows:
We will be formally raising our concerns with UEFA, Olympique de Marseille and French police in relation to the unacceptable treatment of our supporters by police at Stade Vélodrome following Tuesday's UEFA Champions League fixture.
Following the final whistle, our supporters were required to remain in the stadium for a period of up to one hour on the instruction of local authorities to ensure their safety when leaving the stadium.
Plans were in place to move 500 supporters at a time, with a police escort to the Metro station for onward travel to Place de la Joliette.
Our supporters were in good spirits despite the disappointing result and waited patiently and without incident during the holdback period.
The post-match operation was observed at close quarters by our stewards and senior staff.
'Unnecessary and disproportionate force'
Once the first group of supporters was released, the police began using unnecessary and disproportionate force to stop the remainder of our fans from moving any further. This was actioned through a combination of pepper spray, batons and shields, with numerous supporters being indiscriminately assaulted by the police.
Many supporters were visibly distressed, particularly in the upper concourse area of the away sector, where crushing became apparent.
Our staff immediately addressed the matter with the police, however this had limited impact on their excessive tactics.
Fans leaving the stadium rightly shared their distress, frustration and anger with our staff, and we have subsequently received deeply concerning witness reports from supporters who were in attendance.
Supporter safety and welfare should always be of paramount importance, and we strongly condemn the treatment of our supporters by the police during this incident.
Next steps
We will be calling on UEFA, Olympique de Marseille and local authorities to formally investigate this matter to ensure lessons are learned and this behaviour is not repeated.
We are continuing to liaise with the United Kingdom Football Policing Unit (UKFPU) as we gather evidence on behalf of our supporters.
Were you in attendance?
We would like to hear from supporters affected by this incident as we collate as much supporting information as possible. This will also be shared with UEFA, UKFPU and the Football Supporters Europe organisation.
Supporters who wish to share their witness report should email [email protected]
Were you there? The club wants to hear from you
If you were there and experienced this shocking behaviour, the club are urging you to come forward and report what you saw to supporter services.
Hopefully, the matter is taken seriously and investigated fully. We're not sure exactly what a favourable outcome would be, but we expect that Olympique Marseille could end up with some sort of fine.
If that's the case, we wonder if they make the police pay it for them, after all, it was they who were the aggressors, not the club itself.
