February 14 – Independent UEFA-appointed investigators have found European football’s governing body mainly responsible for the security chaos at the 2022 Champions League final in Paris between Liverpool and Real Madrid that put thousands of lives at risk.
“It is remarkable that no one lost their life,” the investigation panel wrote, in a 220-page review published Monday, into a near “mass fatality catastrophe” at the biggest club game in world football.
Far from exonerating UEFA, which many observers had feared, “the panel has concluded that UEFA, as event owner, bears primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster,” the report said.
Tens of thousands of fans found themselves being crushed in queues for hours before the game at the Stade de France. Many were teargassed by police before the game, with kick-off delayed by nearly 40 minutes.
After the game Liverpool fans were blamed for arriving at the stadium late and using fake tickets to try to gain entry – wrong on both counts, the report said.
“UEFA’s lack of oversight upon delegation of private safety and security matters, deference of all such matters in the public space to policing authorities, and simply not following its own safety, security and service requirements, was a recipe for the failures which occurred.”
“Senior officials at the top of UEFA allowed this to happen, even though the shortcomings of its model were widely known at senior management level.”
The long-time CEO of UEFA Events, Martin Kallen, is broadly criticised by the panel.
French police were also blamed by the investigation team – headed by a former sports minister of Portugal, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues – for wrongly assuming that Liverpool fans posed a threat to public order and for using tear gas and pepper spray.
“Several key stakeholders have not accepted responsibility for their own failures but have been quick to attribute blame to others.”
“Institutional defensiveness, putting reputation and self-interest above truth and responsibility, prevents progressive change.”
The final “will be remembered as a moment of suffering for many fans but should also be a reminder of a situation we certainly do not want to witness again in the future at any sporting event in Europe or anywhere in the world,” said Rodrigues.
Ironically the Champions League final had been moved to Paris at three months’ notice after UEFA stripped Russia of hosting the game in St. Petersburg because of the military invasion of Ukraine.
As soon as the report was published UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis apologised “to all those who were affected by the events that unfolded on what should have been a celebration at the pinnacle of the club season.”
“In particular, I would like to apologise to the supporters of Liverpool FC…. for the messages released prior to and during the game which had the effect of unjustly blaming them for the situation leading to the delayed kick-off.”
A law firm representing more than 600 Liverpool fans said those affected were due compensation. UEFA pledged Monday to “announce separately a special refund scheme for fans.”
The report made 21 recommendations in an attempt to ensure “everything possible is done” to prevent any similar incident happening again at a major sporting event.
It also warned French authorities this should be a “wake-up call” before it hosts the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For many Liverpool fans, the incident and subsequent attempted attribution of blame on their supporters evoked painful memories of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in which 97 fans died.
Indeed, the accusations made against Liverpool were strongly criticised in the Rodrigues-led report.
“The parallels between Hillsborough 1989 and Paris 2022 are palpable,” it said. “The similarities include the fact both events were preventable and both were caused by the failures of those responsible for public safety.”
UEFA said it welcomed the report and will learn from it moving forward.
“[The report] highlights a number of important lessons about how the organisation of the final could have been improved. The report also makes a set of valuable recommendations to ensure better fan experience and safety at future events,” Uefa said
“UEFA is currently analysing the findings of the review and assessing them against its own analysis of the organisation of the event and facts that occurred around it.At the same time, UEFA is reviewing the recommendations of the Panel in order to introduce appropriate changes and arrangements to ensure the highest level of safety for fans at future finals.”
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