Liverpool supporters made their anger against Uefa clear by booing the Champions League anthem ahead of their team’s last 16 match against Real Madrid – the club’s first fixture in the competition since Uefa admitted “primary responsibility” for the unsavoury scenes outside the Stade de France before last year’s final against the same opponents.
An independent report, which was commissioned by Uefa to review the failings of its showpiece event on 28 May 2022, was published last week and concluded that “it is remarkable no one lost their life” after Liverpool supporters were tear gassed by riot police, crammed into narrow spaces on their way to the stadium and mugged by local gangs.
The final, which Real Madrid won 1-0, had a delayed start as supporters struggled to get into the stadium to take their seats due to the issues outside it. Uefa initially blamed the late kick-off on “the late arrival of fans at the stadium” while French interior minister Gerard Darmanin said “thousands of British ‘supporters’, without tickets or with counterfeit tickets” were to blame.
The report found “no evidence” to the claims, calling them “reprehensible”.
It was unsurprising therefore, that Liverpool fans seized their opportunity to air their grievances against European football’s governing body at the first opportunity.
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During the build-up to the match, presenter Jake Humphrey issued an apology to Liverpool fans for BT Sport‘s reporting of the pre-match issues before the 2021-22 final.
“We are hugely regretful that we were reading out those false statements. The only statements shared on the big screens inside the stadium, as we all remember, was a completely false narrative,” he said.
“And I just want to say sorry to all the people involved in this football club, who the stress was added to you because of us sharing that information which we now know to be completely false.
“The truth is that those football fans that were being accused were out there saving the lives of other fans, including our family members and our friends.”
Former Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said: “I think that news was very welcome in this stadium and amongst every Liverpool fan because it’s not good enough. I thought the treatment on the night was a disgrace.
“I think it’s the only time as a pundit I’ve never really enjoyed it being there. We didn’t have any signal inside the ground, no internet connection, we were getting the wrong information led to us.
“There was a lot of confusion, we had family and friends that are outside the stadium and the treatment was a disgrace basically. But thankfully the independent investigation has come clear and there’s no blame to Liverpool fans, which is very important.”
Analysis: Uefa’s apology to Liverpool is not enough, Ceferin must go
By Daniel Storey, i‘s chief football writer
There are two strands to the scandal that should force systemic change within Uefa. The first is the guilt to be apportioned for the total mismanagement of the biggest match in European football’s calendar. The report concluded that Uefa was only ever involved ineffectually, failed to take responsibility and, when it did so, it failed to use the appropriate staff. “The panel has not been able to identify any effective action taken by the safety and security unit” – that alone is unforgivable on such a high-profile occasion.
That blame extends to the French police, who prepared themselves for a culture of hooliganism that was never likely and a ticketless army of supporters that never existed. We can be generous towards the police and say that they panicked or we can be cynical and say that they were unduly primed to be heavy-handed; neither is palatable. But the report concluded that it was “remarkable that nobody lost their life” in “dangerous conditions” that were exacerbated by the police’s liberal use of teargas and pepper spray towards supporters who had done nothing wrong beyond their apparently foolish assumption that they would be protected.
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But more than the culpability of those organisational bodies, it is the manner in which they colluded to smear innocent supporters that is most indefensible. Claims from Uefa and French police that there were large numbers of ticketless fans were baseless, but “stated as fact to deflect responsibility for the planning and operational failures of stakeholders”.
The report labelled it “reprehensible” behaviour and that was being delicate. The fear of those supporters – the grotesque reminders of times past – was used as a weapon against them by the governing body of their own sport. This is as grim as it gets.
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