Champions League final: France blames 'massive' ticket fraud as policing row rages | 3NEWS.com

Liverpool ticket-holders were seen waiting in huge queues, with French police using pepper spray, fans said.

The final was delayed by 35 minutes by the trouble outside the stadium, with Liverpool losing the match against Spain’s Real Madrid 1-0.

But France’s interior and sports ministers have been pointing initial blame for the chaos at fans with fake tickets and local youths trying to force their way into the stadium.

Interior minister Gérald Darmanin said “massive, industrial-scale” ticket fraud had caused Liverpool fans to turn up en masse and said that of about 30 arrests made at the Stade de France “more than a half concerned British citizens”.

Speaking earlier on French radio, sports minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra said there were “no problems” regarding Real supporters and the Spanish side had controlled their travelling fans better than Liverpool.

But Merseyside police, who are responsible for policing in Liverpool and were present in Paris, said the vast majority of Liverpool fans arrived early at the turnstiles and behaved in an “exemplary manner”.

“[Fans] were indiscriminately pepper-sprayed and there were people with tickets, who arrived two-and-a-half hours early, who were queuing up and they were charged at by riot police with shields.”