The night before last, the evening of the Champions League final, an event took place that forever tarnished the image of France (zépartie for a little dramatic introduction). Liverpool supporters, who had their place, were turned down at the entrance to the Stade de France. Hard blow. But before raging against the French organization, because don’t panic we will do it, let’s also look at the biggest mistakes in the organization of major sporting events all over the world. Because sport is beautiful, but let’s not forget that it’s sometimes organized with the ass.
1. First big organizational error, Liverpool supporters failed at the entrance to the Stade de France
It has caused a scandal in recent days: a few minutes before the kick-off of the Champions League final initially scheduled for 9 p.m., Liverpool supporters were stranded near the Stade de France when they had their ticket for the match. .
After UEFA’s decision to finally organize the Champions League final in Paris rather than St Petersburg, France found themselves with only three months to organize this meeting, and it felt good. About 60,000 English had made the trip. When you know the price of a place in the Champions League (around €500), it’s clear that missing the match due to a lack of organization is quite annoying.
Many supporters only entered the stadium a few minutes before kick-off, which was already delayed by 36 minutes. Others will have waited the whole game in front of closed doors. Inevitably the spirits are heated and the supporters get angry. They are very quickly calmed down by the police who do not want to hear anything and start to send tear gas into the crowd, while children were present. Obviously a lot of English and Ile-de-France supporters had fake tickets, and this is what led to so much confusion, because the organizers of the Stade de France were not prepared for such a large number of people.
In short, just two years from the Olympics and a year from the Rugby World Cup, we can say that it doesn’t give a damn, and that the English still hate us a little more than before, but rightly so this time.
2. The FFF broadcast the wrong anthem during the France-Albania match at the Stade de France
Another organizational error for French football which had toured Europe: the bad anthem which had been broadcast during the France-Albania match during the eliminatory phases of Euro 2020. Indeed, France had played the anthem of Andorra (no further report), and the kick-off had been delayed. Finally, the FFF was sanctioned by UEFA and had to pay a fine of 20,000 euros, so we don’t care about CAF and the organization of CAN 2022 but we don’t do much better in the end.
3. And the wrong anthem (again) during CAN 2022 during the Mauritania-Gambia match
We were talking about UEFA earlier, but CAF also has its share of bullshit, especially during the organization of this last CAN. During the Mauritania – Gambia game, which was Mauritania’s first game, the organization got the anthem wrong three times before giving up and starting the game. Already that the refereeing error during the Tunisia-Mali match (the match had been stopped too early) had allowed the whole world to make fun of the face of CAF, this big blunder had nothing arranged.
4. When UEFA was forced to win the Champions League draw
Definitely, this Champions League did not really start as we would have liked. UEFA had recognized a technical problem and had to redo the draw. The images showed in particular that the ball of Manchester United had been forgotten to make the salad bowl of possible opponents of Atlético Madrid for example. Yeah, not pro.
5. An embarrassing error in the flag of North Korea during the London Olympics in 2012
Shortly before the meeting between North Korea and Colombia, the Koreans realized the big mistake made by the Olympic committee and refused to play the match until the latter was settled. Indeed, the Olympic Committee had used the South Korean flag to present the North Korean delegation, and as we know that the two countries are not great friends, North Korea was not so happy…
6. The dramatic problem of the Furiani stadium in Corsica
Thirty years ago, it was more than a simple organizational problem, but a tragedy that took place in Corsica. 19 dead and 2357 injured, this is the balance sheet of the match after an entire stand collapsed in a match between OM and Bastia. This incident is surely the greatest tragedy in French sport, and we can say it loud and clear, the Furiani stadium is very clearly the worst stadium in France.
7. It’s been 40 years since there was an error engraved on the Roland Garros trophy
In 2019, Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian to win Roland Garros since Margaret Court, who won in 1973. Except that the engraving on the trophy indicated that Sue Barker, titled in 1976, was Australian while the player was British.
It is therefore Ashleigh Barty who realizes this little blunder when she receives the trophy and kindly points it out by saying that she knows the course of Margaret Court and that Sue Barker is not Australian. Oops.
8. The somewhat embarrassing mistake of the Olympic Committee in synchronized swimming during the 2021 Olympics
The pairs synchronized swimming had been won by Svetlana Romashina and Svetlana Kolesnichenko, Russians, and in third place were Marta Fiedina and Anastasiya Savchuk, who were also presented as Russians (well as the “ROC” Russia can no longer to be officially represented because of his doping problems), whereas they are Ukrainian, yeah we are uncomfortable too.
Big drop on the forehead of the Japanese Olympic Committee, the organizers apologized explaining that it was simply a technical error, but given the context you understand that it did not go very well on the Ukrainian side. It would be a question of being a little more attentive next time friends.
9. The 2019 World Athletics Championships, held in the sweltering heat of Qatar
Dropouts one after the other, chain fainting, little spoiler: organizing the World Athletics Championships in Qatar in the middle of summer was bullshit. More than 30° and about 75% humidity, it’s true that to run a 3000m, it doesn’t seem to be the best conditions. Note however that the Khalifa stadium was air-conditioned to maintain the temperature at 25° (which is absurd in terms of ecology), the road events (walking, marathon, long-distance races) were therefore strongly penalised. The athletes were exhausted, many gave up, but nothing prevented these championships from taking place. Yeah not the best of ideas.
10. The 2012 Tour de France was mistakenly announced in advance
In 2011, the Amaury Sport Organization published the route of the Tour 2012 by mistake. In addition to that, the ASO had published the route on the official site of the Grande Boucle so everyone had had time to be at the current (even if it had only lasted a few minutes). Eventually the ASO was contacted by AFP about its error and was able to delete what it had published. We have the impression that it happens every year for the baccalaureate, but visually even professional sport is affected by this phenomenon of flight from subjects.