Newcastle United fans say Marseille treatment ‘out of hand’

Newcastle United fans say their treatment by police following the Champion’s League match against Marseille was “wholly avoidable”.

The club lodged a complaint with Uefa, the French side and local police and said pepper spray, batons and shields were used on away supporters following the Magpies’ 2-1 defeat on Tuesday.

Supporter Raul Kohli said the Newcastle fans were not causing any trouble and the response was “completely out of hand”, while fan Sam Dalling described the ordeal as “scary”.

Marseille said their system was “strictly adhered to” and the police said they made “very limited use of tear gas” following a crowd surge and denied any other use of force.

Travelling Magpies fans were due to be held back inside the Stade Vélodrome after the final whistle for a period of up to one hour for their own safety.

They were then to be escorted in groups of 500 to the metro, but Newcastle said once the first group of supporters was released from the ground, the police began using “unnecessary and disproportionate force to stop the remainder of our fans from moving any further”.

Newcastle fan Mr Dalling said in the crowd on the way out of the stadium there were “huge spaces” behind the police and when they started to let people out there was “this big surge” and the crowd “couldn’t really control itself”.

Mr Kohli, who was there with his friend Thomas de Bernede, said people were falling into the police which caused them to “hit back”.

“The police responded by just smacking people,” he said.

“If you were unfortunate enough to be at the front near the police, the batons were coming out, the pepper spray was coming out,” Mr Dalling added.

A spokesperson for the French police said a “crowd surge required the intervention of the CRS riot police, one of whom made very limited use of tear gas, which caused discomfort to around 20 fans for a few minutes”.

“Apart from this incident, no force was used and the operation went smoothly. No injuries or complaints were reported following this event,” they added.

Mr Dalling told BBC Radio Newcastle: “It was wholly avoidable.

“It was scary enough as it is, but the real worry is that if a situation like that, if they lose control of it, you can’t gain back control and we all know from history what sort of consequences that can have.”

Marseille football club said the system for “welcoming” the travelling support had been “defined before the match” in consultation with the police, Uefa and Newcastle.

“It just seemed completely out of hand and completely unnecessary,” Mr Kohli said.

“I don’t think there was any violence.

“It was an away day, there was a couple of lads pretending to be Spiderman, there was some public indecency, but there was nothing in terms of aggression, no violence towards the police.”