Paris police chief’s partial apology over CL final ‘failure’

By SAMUEL PETREQUIN
AP Sports Writer

The Paris police chief apologized on Thursday for the pepper spraying of genuine fans and families amid the chaos that engulfed the Champions League final last month outside the Stade de France. He also justified the tactic. Paris police prefect Didier Lallement admitted that the evening in the suburb of Saint-Denis was a “failure,” and that France’s image was “shattered.” However, Lalllement maintains the police were responding to the presence of tens of thousands of supporters without tickets or with forged tickets who were not in the immediate vicinity of the stadium but close to the the main points of access to the venue.