Football body Uefa has ordered an independent review of events surrounding the Champions League final after UK officials demanded a probe over the treatment of Liverpool fans.
Portuguese lawmaker Dr Tiago Brandão Rodrigues has been commissioned to lead a comprehensive review that will “examine decision making, responsibility and behaviours of all entities involved in the final,” the sporting body said.
The findings of the independent review will be made public once completed and Uefa will “evaluate the next steps” based on its findings, the body said.
Downing Street had demanded answers over the “disturbing” treatment of Liverpool fans caught up in chaos at the Champions League final, with fans including young children and pregnant women pepper-sprayed while attempting to enter the stadium with valid tickets.
Sports minister Nigel Huddleston said: “I’m pleased that Uefa has listened and will conduct a full, independent inquiry into the events at the Stade de France on Saturday night.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool FC asked supporters who attended the final in Paris to complete an online survey about their experiences to be used by the inquiry.
Chief executive Billy Hogan said: “All of the information is going to be treated securely and respectfully within the club. It’s vitally important that we get all this information into one place so it can be used in an investigation in the proper way.”
French ministers have claimed that thousands of fans turned up without tickets and attempted to gain entry to the stadium.
A No 10 spokesman said earlier that footage from outside the Stade de France was “deeply upsetting and disturbing”.
“We know many Liverpool fans travelled to Paris in good time to support their team in one of the biggest matches of the season and we are hugely disappointed by how they were treated,” he said.
“Fans deserve to know what happened, so we are urging Uefa to work closely with the French authorities on a full investigation and to publish those findings.”
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Former Tory leader Michael Howard, who attended the game, said it was “nonsense” to blame fans.
“There was no late arrival of fans. The problem was that the gates were closed, I was in a queue, in a crush, with my wife, which could have become very dangerous,” Lord Howard told the BBC.
“And we were waiting for the gate to which we’d been told to go and which was the right gate according to our tickets to open and it wasn’t opened.”
Liverpool MP Ian Byrne said fans were treated “like animals” which brought back “so many terrible memories” of the Hillsborough football disaster in April 1989.
Speaking on Sky News, he said: “It was horrific, there’s no other words to describe it, it was absolutely horrific.”
He blamed “awful policing and stewarding” and an “extremely hostile atmosphere”.
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