World Cup organisers have apologised to fans caught up in the chaotic scenes outside the Stade Velodrome before England’s match against Argentina on Saturday night.
Thousands of ticket holders missed the start of the Pool D opener because of the limited number of entry points and turnstiles, insufficient staffing levels and extensive security checks.
The weight of numbers led to crushes outside the ground and while France 2023 announced there were no incidents and all 63,118 seats were eventually taken, many supporters were concerned for their safety amid the potential for the situation to escalate.
England and Argentina fans struggle to get into Saturday’s Pool D opener in Marseille (image supplied by Tim Chamberlain).
“Fans are the heartbeat of the tournament and we would like to apologise to fans impacted by yesterday’s access challenges,” a statement read.
“We are working hard to enhance the experience for all visiting Marseille for Rugby World Cup 2023.”
Organisers have stated there will now be more service volunteers in place to assist with entry as well as increased announcements on public transport, including in English.
Other measures are also being taken to sure there is not a repeat of the scenes that took place before England beat Argentina 27-10 in the opening match of Pool D, which was staged in a hot and humid Marseille.
Although the crowds were well behaved and the atmosphere respectful, many supporters feared the consequences if the crushes intensified.
“When we got out of the station at the stadium there was an overwhelming number of people as there are just two entry points,” said England supporter Tim Chamberlain, who was attending his fifth World Cup.
“It felt like there were just not enough turnstiles and not enough people working. We stood in the melee for 45 minutes and it was really hot.
“You could see when we got in that it was potentially dangerous and there were occasional crowd surges, which were worrying, but people were generally pretty respectful.”
The Stade Velodrome was due to host Scotland’s Pool B tournament opener against reigning world champions South Africa on Sunday with the match scheduled to kick off at 1645BST.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here