UEFA is largely responsible for the chaotic security at last year’s Champions League final in Paris. That cconcludes an independent research panel of the European Football Association that took care of the organization of the match between Liverpool and Real Madrid. “It is remarkable that no one lost their lives,” the panel said in a document published Monday. As organizer of the event, it says, UEFA bears “primary responsibility for disturbances that have almost led to disaster”.
Thousands of supporters with a fake ticket tried to enter the Stade de France on May 28 last year, which led to great chaos. When the entrance gates did not open for them, large groups of people, including supporters with valid tickets, were squeezed. Several supporters tried to climb over the fences to get in, after which the police deployed tear gas. The game started due to the disturbances 36 minutes later.
The Commission of Inquiry, made up of lawyers, academics and representatives of supporters’ associations, spent eight months investigating the events surrounding the match. Among other things, it calls UEFA’s lack of safety oversight and failure to follow its own safety regulations a “recipe for the failures that occurred”. “Top UEFA officials allowed this to happen,” the researchers said.
Initially, UEFA and the French authorities blamed a large-scale ticket fraud. The report found no evidence for this. The French authorities are accused of complacency: they are said to have made major errors of judgment about what actually happened. The French police are also not spared, because they wrongly assumed that Liverpool fans were a threat to public order. Shortly after the publication of the investigation report, UEFA apologized through Secretary-General Theodore Theodoridis on Monday.
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