Champions League final chaos in Paris: UEFA to blame

The 2022 Champions League final will live long in the memory for those who were there. But for all the wrong reasons. Real Madrid's win over Liverpool in Paris became a side show to scenes around the stadium, with Liverpool fans crushed, mugged and attacked, legitimate tickets rejected and innocent fans pepper sprayed by aggressive French riot police.

"The panel has concluded that UEFA, as event owner, bears primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster,'' said a report officially released by UEFA's own investigators on Monday. "It is remarkable that no one lost their life," it continued.

UEFA, which also oversaw chaotic finals of the Europa League in Seville in 2022 and the Euros final in London the previous year, eventually delayed the kickoff but blamed Liverpool fans in a public announcement shown on stadium screens. In reality, thousands had been forced into a crush outside the stadium despite arriving hours before kickoff.

UEFA issues overdue apology

Many fans were fired upon with tear gas by police before the game, which was eventually delayed by nearly 40 minutes. After Madrid's 1-0 win, many were robbed and attacked leaving the stadium by local residents in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, where the stadium is located.

On Monday, UEFA General Secretary Theodore Theodoridis apologized to the English club's fans for UEFA having laid the blame on them initially then doubling down by reporting that about 40,000 Liverpool fans were using fake tickets. This was not the case and no evidence was ever presented suggesting it could have been.

The panel, appointed seven months ago by UEFA, also laid blame at the door of UEFA's commercial subsidiary UEFA Events and French public authorities, including the police. UEFA delegated many security matters to local authorities but French riot police are notoriously tough on football fans, with few fans allowed to travel to away games in the country. 

"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 that occurred,'' read the report. "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.''

Paris with questions to answer ahead of Olympics

Paris Police Chief Didier Lallement apologized weeks after the final for the heavy-handed and sometimes brutal actions of the French police, still Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin remains in place despite heavy criticism of his part in the fiasco.

The report also said "key stakeholders" had been slow to take the blame, which is particularly concerning given the Stade de France will be a key venue at this year's rugby World Cup and next year's Paris Olympics. 

Liverpool play Real Madrid again in the Champions League next Tuesday and a law firm representing more than 600 Liverpool fans say they should be entitled to compensation.

"Liverpool fans have waited eight months for answers as to how and why the horrific events they experienced on May 28, 2022, unfolded," Clare Campbell and Jill Paterson, partners at Leigh Day, said. "At this stage, we still strongly believe that UEFA need to compensate Liverpool fans for their experience."

Fan group Spirit of Shankly welcomed the findings of the report of a night they described as a "maelstrom of chaos and alarm that led to some fans fearing for their lives."

"The fans have been exonerated," their statement continued. "A breakdown in communication on the day, the failures of UEFA, the French police and authorities were to blame. The shame — beginning with the stadium billboard announcing kick-off was delayed due to fans arriving late, supporters being tear gassed and pepper sprayed, pick-pocketed and attacked, people frightened they were going to die — is on them."

Germany also under football policing spotlight

While France's issues with policing football are significant, Germany also has problems. In recent years, supporters have often faced difficulties entering football grounds and have dealt with various questionable security measures, mostly affecting away fans.

In one case, hundreds of Werder Bremen supporters were held by police as they made way to their club's away game in Wolfsburg in August 2022, with police demanding they show personal documents despite not having committed any crimes.  According to Wolfsburg Police, the step was taken to "prevent clashes between fan groups." As a result, many Werder fans went home in protest. Both clubs criticized police handling of the supporters.

Indeed, German Police measures have sometimes resulted in violence against supporters. Ahead of the Hamburg derby last October, footage of a police officer emerged in which he could be seen repeatedly hitting a St. Pauli fan who had been lying on the ground unable to move.  This came after police said they had stopped fans of the two clubs from clashing. In another case, a police officer was taken to court after he had kicked a Borussia Dortmund supporter while he was lying on the ground at the city’s main train station after the club's away derby against archrivals Schalke.

In recent years, fan representatives in Germany have often called for authorities to stop placing football supporters under “general suspicion." This was also a contributory factor in Paris last year, with a report from the French Ministry of Sports wrongly linking hooliganism with the Hillsborough stadium disaster of 1989, in which nearly 100 people died as a result of inadequate policing. A cover-up of the events that led to the deaths has gone on for decades and is still unravelling.

"It is shocking that more than 30 years after the Hillsborough disaster any club and our group of fans would be subject to such fundamental safety failings which have had such a devastating impact on so many," said Liverpool in a statement, which also called upon UEFA to enact the 21 recommendations of the report. "But even more concerning is the realization that for families, friends and survivors of Hillsborough, Paris has only exacerbated their suffering."

Unlike at Hillsborough, many of the events of last May were captured on camera phones by fans and journalists, possibly forcing UEFA's hand.

Edited by: Chuck Penfold