French minister shamelessly invokes spectre of Hysel

The French Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, seems intent on challenging Boris Johnson as the politician who has gone out of his way most to offend and unfairly castigate the people of Liverpool in particular and English football fans in general.

His claim that up to 70% of tickets presented at the Champions League final on Saturday were fake is demonstrably false. The actions of his government, Paris police and stadium authorities were responsible for the dangerous events ahead of kick-off. Uefa’s culpability remains an open question.

Darmanin invoked the 37-year-old spectre of Hysel, without naming the disaster, as justification for his own mistakes. It seems that politicians implying those across a border are somehow inferior is not limited to these shores.

Johnson, hard on the heels of criticising Liverpool fans for booing the national anthem at the FA Cup Final, and unable to find the goodwill to wish the club good luck in the Champions League Final (having videoed a greeting for Newco a week earlier), made what sounded like grudging noises of support for what happened to fans.

As we have long known in Scotland, football fans are little more than scapegoats for politicians own failures.