This is the Guardian.

Today, a special Guardian investigation into how this year's Champions League final in Paris

came so close to disaster.

Before we start, this episode contains an eyewitness account of the Hillsborough disaster.

It can be pretty tough to listen to, so if that's sensitive for you in some way, just a heads up.

On the morning of May 28th this year, thousands of Liverpool supporters arrived at Fanzones in Paris,

and the atmosphere was electric.

It was the day of the Champions League final, Liverpool vs Real Madrid, and it would end in chaos.

The scenes we're seeing here tonight are like nothing we've seen at a football ground for years.

We're hearing from fans of both clubs who are saying that the Diet police inside there are

indiscriminately tear-gassing people and pepper-strain people. There are children coming out of

their entiers tonight. These are very, very distressing scenes.

That night came closer to catastrophe than anyone realised at the time.

What should be the happiest time as a football fan, a festival of football,

going to the biggest club game on the planet, for what it became, it just sickens me.

It really sickens me to my stomach.

Thousands of Liverpool supporters, like Kevin Cowley, found themselves crammed together on a

dangerous route to the stadium, and then later, blamed for the event nearly turning deadly.

For Kevin, a survivor of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster. It was deja vu.

I've lived through one cover-up which massively affected my life, and I thought I can't see this

again. Why do they persist in coming up with this story? Throughout, there is an echo of Hillsborough.

It's just incredible how many there are.

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