MADRID, 14 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Liverpool has asked UEFA on Tuesday to apply in a “complete and transparent” manner the recommendations made in the independent report on the riots that occurred at the Stade de France in the Champions League final last season, according to a club statement. ‘grid’.
“We implore UEFA to fully implement the recommendations outlined by the Panel of Experts (in said independent report), no matter how difficult, to ensure that the safety of fans is the number one priority at the heart of every UEFA match. UEFA football”, expressed the entity’s reaction on Tuesday.
Liverpool called on UEFA and other bodies “at the top of the pyramid of football regulation” in their statement to “come together and take positive and transparent steps to ensure there are no more ‘near misses’.”
“On the night of the Champions League final at the Stade de France, even before the delay of the start of the match was announced, we asked senior UEFA officials to delay the start of the match and take control of the chaos that had developed outside the stadium. We also asked UEFA to launch an independent and transparent investigation to establish the facts,” the club recalled.
In the entity they saw it as “fundamental” to understand why the “security” of fans of Liverpool and Real Madrid was put “in danger”, for which they believed a “solid” investigation was necessary. “Immediately after that night in Paris, shocking false stories were spread; narratives that have since been totally refuted,” lamented the English group.
The club regretted the “organizational failures, the lack of control, general supervision of security and protection, poor planning and the lack of contingency plans” before, during and after the final. “The report also found that there was ‘a clear and immediate danger of a fatal crush’ and that the action of Liverpool supporters saved lives,” he said.
“The Panel concluded that UEFA’s ‘model’ for organizing the final was flawed and that the safety, security and service model set out in the Council of Europe Convention was ignored in favor of an approach that was inappropriately based on incorrect assumptions that our fans posed significant threats to public order,” the statement criticized.
Thus, the ‘red’ club appreciated that the report has “established the facts” and asked UEFA to implement “in a complete and transparent manner” the 21 critical recommendations that are introduced in the work of the Panel of Experts.
“The independent report from the French Senate published in July 2022 found that Liverpool supporters were unfairly and wrongly blamed for the chaotic scenes to divert attention from the real organizational mistakes. The independent report from the Senate also published 15 recommendations for improvement. Until No action has been taken to date on these recommendations,” the statement said.
Liverpool called it “shocking” that more than 30 years after the Hillsborough disaster, every club and fan is subject to “security flaws so fundamental that they have had such a devastating impact.” “But even more troubling is the realization that for Hillsborough families, friends and survivors, Paris has only exacerbated their suffering,” he added.
THE INDEPENDENT REPORT DETERMINES THAT UEFA IS “MAINLY RESPONSIBLE”
The independent report commissioned by UEFA to shed light on the incidents surrounding before and after the 2021-2022 Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool at the Stade Saint-Dennis in Paris pointed to the continental body as ” the main culprit.”
The final of the maximum continental competition on May 28 was marked by serious problems around the Parisian stadium, with thousands of fans of the English team unable to enter after organized gangs tried to steal their tickets and also being subjected to the police action with tear gas. All this caused the start of the meeting to be delayed half an hour.
This Panel published the 220-page report, where UEFA was blamed and Liverpool fans were completely exonerated, whom the body came to blame for arriving late to the stadium, although it was leaked hours before, which led to the anger of the English team.
“The Panel is left with a feeling of real concern for the lack of vision of what happened on May 28 and for not recognizing the role of the authorities,” says the document, which regrets that the “network” fans were blamed. “without any adequate evidentiary basis”. According to the report, it was “remarkable” that there was no loss of life despite the fact that a near “catastrophe of mass deaths” could have happened.