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“I thought it was some kind of bomb. I was scared as I couldn’t breathe properly. I was scared because I had never seen any problems like this. I asked my dad, ‘Who was doing this?’ and he said it was the police. I was scared because I had always thought the police were good people to help us.” Carlos Clemente is nine years old and a Liverpool fan. A few weeks ago, his father, Carl, let him know the good news. They had tickets for the Champions League final in Paris. It was Liverpool versus Real Madrid in the biggest showpiece occasion in European club football. You can imagine his reaction: thrilled, excited, fully expecting it to be one of the best days of his life. What happened outside the Stade de France instead turned it into an ordeal he will always remember for the wrong reasons. It was a scene of panic, brutality and sheer chaos. It has been exposed as a scandal that goes to the top of UEFA and the French police. And there are people who witnessed this mayhem, close up, and feel lucky it did not end in tragedy. Nine-year-old Carlos and his dad Carlos was one of the children who were tear-gassed, terrorised and traumatised and who have trusted The Athletic to tell their stories about the events that put thousands upon thousands of people in danger. His first game at Anfield was as a six-year-old. His favourite player is Mohamed Salah. Carlos had told his friends at school he was going to the final. Everything was in place for a magical experience. Yet there are photographs that show him after the match — and it is unmistakable terror on his face. His eyes are streaming. He is holding his dad close. “I didn’t know what it (the tear gas) was until my dad told me a few days later,” he says. “I had to put my Liverpool scarf over my mouth. A Liverpool fan – a nice lady – gave me a face mask and some water. My eyes were stinging and I was crying a lot. It lasted for around a minute, but happened on two occasions. “One time, the bomb landed in front of my dad and he fell over. I was scared. I just wanted to be with my mum. She phoned my dad and I was crying for her, telling her I was scared. I jumped into my dad’s arms. I wanted him to cuddle me.” Carlos and his dad before the trouble started There are other children around the same age who went through the same ordeal. Some have told us they are wary, frightened even, about going back to football. They talk about it being the scariest experience of their lives. Some are still suffering from the impact of the tear gas and, almost certainly, the psychological effects, too. “Watching those harrowing and distressing scenes of young children being pepper-sprayed or feeling the effects of tear gas is truly heartbreaking,” says Joe Blott, chairman of the Spirit of Shankly supporters’ group. “Young kids on their parents’ shoulders, singing songs about their idols, pinching themselves that their parents had got them a ticket. A dream come true. A dream that turned into a nightmare.” Maxwell Pearce is 11 years old and a Liverpool fan. “I was really, really excited because it was the biggest game of the year,” he says. “I’ve always supported Liverpool. And, wow, we had tickets for the final.” He was with his father, Jade, in Paris and perhaps you have seen the photograph that went viral of them outside the stadium. Again, it is difficult to see so much trauma in a young boy’s eyes. Maxwell is wearing a Liverpool top, holding his scarf over his mouth. He is, in his father’s words “petrified… in bits, he thought he was being poisoned, he thought he was going to die”. It was not long after that picture was taken that they decided it was too risky, too dangerous, and gave up trying to get into the stadium. It didn’t matter that they had tickets. “I just want to go,” a sobbing Maxwell told his father. “I want to get out of here. Let’s go. Please, let’s go.” It is a relief, therefore, to find Maxwell smiling again when he arrives home from school in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, and changes into the new Liverpool kit that Jason McAteer has sent him as a gift. McAteer, a former Liverpool player, was also caught up in the trouble that involved gangs from Saint-Denis, one of the more notorious parts of Paris, picking off innocent fans outside the stadium. His wife, Lucy, was mugged for her watch and their son, Harry, was also attacked. McAteer saw the pictures of Maxwell and wanted to do something for him. But it is always going to be hard for a boy of his age to understand the sequence of events that has led to the French authorities admitting there were “multiple failures” in the management of the crowd. “We were sprayed with tear gas, and I still don’t understand why,” says Maxwell. “Everyone was shouting at me to get on the ground and cover my face with my scarf. I had no idea what was happening. Everyone’s eyes were really stinging. Everyone was coughing. “You struggle to breathe. You can taste it on your lips. I tried to wash my eyes from my bottle of water, but I didn’t have enough water. I was panicking because I didn’t know what was going on. I thought I was being poisoned. I really thought I was going to die.” Almost three weeks on, he is still suffering nasal problems. He has been to a doctor and the diagnosis was that the tear gas had left his nostrils red and inflamed. But Maxwell and his father know it could have been worse. They saw the gangs who were ambushing fans and stealing their valuables. The gangs were feral and indiscriminate and described as “malevolent individuals” in the initial 30-page report by the French government. Nobody was safe. “The Liverpool fans were really kind,” says Maxwell. “They formed a circle around me, making sure I wasn’t getting hurt. All the fans were helping, being really nice to me. That’s why I love going to Liverpool, because everyone is so nice. I don’t know if I’d go to France again, but I will definitely go back to Liverpool.” Everything, though, is still very confusing. Maxwell has been brought up to believe the police are there to protect him. So why, he wants to know, did they want to hurt innocent people? “I’d been so excited to see the game. I was looking forward to it for ages but everything was so scary I just wanted to go back to the hotel. I said to my dad, ‘I’m really scared, I want to go’. Then the police came up to the gate again, with their canisters, and that’s when we ran.” “It is healing quite quickly,” says Noel Welsh, removing his glasses to show the damage to his right eye. “It was more the shock, to be honest, because it was the last thing I expected. Physically, I’m all right. But I think it will always be with me. Every game I go to, it will always be playing on my mind.” Noel is 14. He was in Paris with his brother, James, and their father, Tony, as part of a group of eight. Noel was the youngest member of their travelling party and he is still coming to terms with being attacked outside the stadium by someone trying to steal his ticket. That, however, tells only part of the story bearing in mind he and his family were also caught up in the crush, on the approach to the stadium, when thousands of fans were funnelled into an underpass where there was not enough space for the number of people. “People were getting squashed,” says Noel. “I’ve seen pictures of what it was like at Hillsborough and it made me feel like that, and how they would have felt. There was one point when we were heading towards a concrete pillar and I thought we were going to go straight into it. I was scared. People were shouting, ‘This is like Hillsborough’.” “My dad has a bad back and I put my arm around him. My arm was getting squashed. I was in agony but I had to do it. The next day, we were in the airport and my ribs … I’ve never felt pain like it. I could hardly breathe. I think I must have done something to my ribs because of the pressure from so many people. I’m shocked no one got seriously hurt or, even worse, killed.” Noel, 14, was attacked at the game It is going to take time to get over what happened. Noel and his family got into the stadium just before half-time. But how could he enjoy what was left of the match after going through that kind of ordeal? His cousin, Ava, was also in Paris and took the photographs of Noel, battered and bloodied, after he and his brother were attacked. “This guy had jumped the queue,” says Noel. “People were telling him, ‘We’ve been queuing for two and a half hours’. But he wouldn’t move. He started telling me he wanted my ticket. We made it clear to him that I was 14 and ‘Why are you going to try to take my ticket off me?’. Then he whispered in my brother’s ear that he was going to slash my dad, stab him. And then he just started lashing out. He hit my brother first, then me. It all happened so quickly.” Their attacker — in his late twenties or thirties and well over six feet tall — was English, speaking with a southern accent. The Athletic has heard many stories about Liverpool’s fans looking after their own. It hurts that the person responsible might have been another supporter of Klopp’s team. James, who is 17, was knocked to the floor and has needed emergency dental work because six of his teeth are damaged. The UK police are involved. “My dad tried to report it to the French police (on the night) and they just pushed him away,” says Noel. “There was no one to help. They were just spraying everyone with tear gas. Four or five times, we got sprayed.