Last summer I sat in a television studio in central Paris, ready to discuss the fiasco at the Champions League final the previous weekend, which I had attended as a Liverpool supporter.
It was my final media appearance of an exhausting day and as a fifth set of makeup marinated into my skin under the sizzling refulgent lights the news presenter posed his first question to me: “Why is it so important to Liverpool fans to speak up about what happened?”
The reason was that supporters who had attended the final sought to counter the narrative espoused by Uefa and the French authorities in the aftermath – that match-goers who had been sprayed with teargas by riot police, mugged by gangs of local youths and locked in perilous crushes outside the stadium as they attempted to attend European football’s showpiece event had brought the carnage upon themselves.
After nine long months the independent panel commissioned by Uefa to investigate the disarray has released its report. The 158 pages of findings repeatedly highlight three key themes: Uefa comprehensively failed to ensure safety and security in its role as event organiser, the French authorities did not cooperate with one another to any kind of acceptable degree and there is no evidence that mass ticketlessness, ticket forgery or any other negative behaviour on the part of Liverpool fans contributed to what almost became a “mass fatality catastrophe”.
The report vindicates everything Liverpool supporters have fought for since it became clear those in power were trying to shift blame on to fans, even before the match belatedly kicked off. It is a meticulous, accurate and at times stupefying piece of work that finds Uefa ultimately responsible.
This document exists because fans organised themselves on the night and during the months after, conducting the type of high-quality communications campaign firms paid millions of pounds in consultancy fees could only dream of improving upon.
As soon as the police began their brutal assault on innocent people at the Stade de France, supporters used social media to document what was happening in real time, then afterwards posted reams of audiovisual evidence online, disproving the idea that fans were at fault before the wheels of cover-up could be fully set in motion.
In the months afterwards, they gave powerful testimony before the French senate, offered up harrowing accounts to news outlets and contributed to the Uefa inquiry in big numbers and good faith.
My position as a journalist, regular Liverpool match-goer, French speaker and former Paris resident meant I was invited on to TV broadcasts in the UK and France in order to discuss what went wrong, who was responsible and what needed to happen to avoid similar chaos in future.
- Uefa should set up a process to ensure that the panel’s recommendations are implemented, including by other stakeholders. Uefa should publish an action plan on its website and regular updates on progress.
-
Uefa should always require that all stakeholders responsible for hosting a Champions League final follow the 2016 Council of Europe “Saint Denis Convention”. It agreed an approach towards supporters based on “safety, security and service” rather than one based on preparing for disorder.
-
Uefa should ensure that its safety and security unit has oversight and primary responsibility for the safety, security, and service component of Champions League final operations.
-
Uefa’s safety and security unit should develop its capacity to “ensure that mobility and access arrangements are as safe and secure as possible for supporters with any disabilities or special needs, and that service to them is optimised”.
-
A host stadium’s safety team should be directly and more fully involved in the planning for a match and making risk assessments.
-
Host stadiums must all have “well-managed security perimeters, welcome services and crowd guidance and orientation”.
-
Uefa should have a formal requirement in the host bidding process that police commit to compliance with the “engagement-focused” approach towards supporters agreed in the Saint Denis Convention.
-
Uefa’s safety and security unit should engage with host police commanders in advance, support access to relevant expertise and invite them to observe quarter- and semi-finals, gaining experience of clubs’ supporters. If problems are identified in the planning phase and cannot be resolved, these should be “escalated to government authorities”.
-
Uefa should move as rapidly as possible to solely digital ticketing, and ensure host venues are fully capable of supporting this. Having both digital and paper ticketing at the Paris final was a factor in causing the long delays and access problems.
-
Uefa should “optimise” its communications and messaging toward supporters regarding the match facilities, mobility, routing and access arrangements. “Above all else it should embed the involvement of supporter organisations and finalist club stewards in its communication strategy, to effectively spread information and urgent messages.”
-
Finalist clubs should have their supporter liaison officers acting as the key contact for supporters. This is already an obligation under the Uefa club licensing regulations.
-
Football Supporters Europe and its affiliated supporter organisations “need to be involved as meaningful stakeholders throughout the planning process” and their representatives need to act as “integrated observers” at the final. They should also be involved in post-match analysis.
-
Uefa should require the host FA to deploy customer service stewards at key parts of the transport network and across the final approach to the stadium, to give guidance to supporters and also provide information to control rooms.
-
Medical and first aid personnel should be always visible and accessible, including at access points, gates and in the stadium concourse.
-
Uefa’s post-match analysis process should be “more analytically and objectively robust”. Uefa should involve external “operational, academic, and supporter-based expertise”.
16: The Council of Europe monitoring committee should review how compliance with the Saint Denis convention can be better monitored and the obligations “more comprehensively enforced”.
- The panel encourages the authorities in France to follow Council of Europe recommendations and those made by the French government official Michel Cadot, to improve management and oversight of major sporting events across ministries.
-
The French ministries of interior and sport should institute their own review of the policing model at sporting events. This should involve supporters’ representatives, experts and academics. Policing authorities should guarantee they will operate a “supporter engagement” model, and that riot police, teargas and pepper spray will only ever be used, proportionately, where deemed necessary due to a risk to life.
-
French authorities should review policy relating to retaining CCTV footage and other material for the purpose of investigations likely to improve security and public safety. Uefa should address this as a requirement from hosts.
-
Host stakeholders should “undertake robust scrutiny” to ensure their arrangements will comply with the Saint Denis convention. Uefa’s safety and security unit should be involved to ensure that compliance is being achieved during the planning process.
-
Uefa and the Council of Europe monitoring committee should look closely at their capacity to apply some of the above recommendations at other Uefa-governed fixtures besides the Champions League final, to avoid similar dangers developing. David Conn
","credit":"","pillar":2}”>
Quick Guide
Champions League final report’s recommendations
Show
The panel’s 21 recommendations to improve safety and security at finals
1. Uefa should set up a process to ensure that the panel’s recommendations are implemented, including by other stakeholders. Uefa should publish an action plan on its website and regular updates on progress.
2. Uefa should always require that all stakeholders responsible for hosting a Champions League final follow the 2016 Council of Europe “Saint Denis Convention”. It agreed an approach towards supporters based on “safety, security and service” rather than one based on preparing for disorder.
3. Uefa should ensure that its safety and security unit has oversight and primary responsibility for the safety, security, and service component of Champions League final operations.
4. Uefa’s safety and security unit should develop its capacity to “ensure that mobility and access arrangements are as safe and secure as possible for supporters with any disabilities or special needs, and that service to them is optimised”.
5. A host stadium’s safety team should be directly and more fully involved in the planning for a match and making risk assessments.
6. Host stadiums must all have “well-managed security perimeters, welcome services and crowd guidance and orientation”.
7. Uefa should have a formal requirement in the host bidding process that police commit to compliance with the “engagement-focused” approach towards supporters agreed in the Saint Denis Convention.
8. Uefa’s safety and security unit should engage with host police commanders in advance, support access to relevant expertise and invite them to observe quarter- and semi-finals, gaining experience of clubs’ supporters. If problems are identified in the planning phase and cannot be resolved, these should be “escalated to government authorities”.
9. Uefa should move as rapidly as possible to solely digital ticketing, and ensure host venues are fully capable of supporting this. Having both digital and paper ticketing at the Paris final was a factor in causing the long delays and access problems.
10. Uefa should “optimise” its communications and messaging toward supporters regarding the match facilities, mobility, routing and access arrangements. “Above all else it should embed the involvement of supporter organisations and finalist club stewards in its communication strategy, to effectively spread information and urgent messages.”
11. Finalist clubs should have their supporter liaison officers acting as the key contact for supporters. This is already an obligation under the Uefa club licensing regulations.
12. Football Supporters Europe and its affiliated supporter organisations “need to be involved as meaningful stakeholders throughout the planning process” and their representatives need to act as “integrated observers” at the final. They should also be involved in post-match analysis.
13. Uefa should require the host FA to deploy customer service stewards at key parts of the transport network and across the final approach to the stadium, to give guidance to supporters and also provide information to control rooms.
14. Medical and first aid personnel should be always visible and accessible, including at access points, gates and in the stadium concourse.
15. Uefa’s post-match analysis process should be “more analytically and objectively robust”. Uefa should involve external “operational, academic, and supporter-based expertise”.
16: The Council of Europe monitoring committee should review how compliance with the Saint Denis convention can be better monitored and the obligations “more comprehensively enforced”.
17. The panel encourages the authorities in France to follow Council of Europe recommendations and those made by the French government official Michel Cadot, to improve management and oversight of major sporting events across ministries.
18. The French ministries of interior and sport should institute their own review of the policing model at sporting events. This should involve supporters’ representatives, experts and academics. Policing authorities should guarantee they will operate a “supporter engagement” model, and that riot police, teargas and pepper spray will only ever be used, proportionately, where deemed necessary due to a risk to life.
19. French authorities should review policy relating to retaining CCTV footage and other material for the purpose of investigations likely to improve security and public safety. Uefa should address this as a requirement from hosts.
20. Host stakeholders should “undertake robust scrutiny” to ensure their arrangements will comply with the Saint Denis convention. Uefa’s safety and security unit should be involved to ensure that compliance is being achieved during the planning process.
21. Uefa and the Council of Europe monitoring committee should look closely at their capacity to apply some of the above recommendations at other Uefa-governed fixtures besides the Champions League final, to avoid similar dangers developing. David Conn
I would have found the prospect of spending a week appearing on live TV in a foreign country using a second language immensely intimidating had I not been able to access the enormous wealth of evidence fans had published. Their work rendered explaining the fiasco straightforward, instilled a sympathetic view in the international press and public and meant those seeking to protect their reputations with mistruths were unable to do so.
Growing up in Liverpool means having your worldview shaped by Hillsborough. The scale of social grief and searing sense of injustice forms an inherited trauma that even those of us not yet born on 15 April 1989 have ingrained into our DNA. Though personalities differ, we share a collective spirit defined by three constants: a distrust of authority, a desire to fight for truth and a relentless stubbornness in the face of adversity.
The independent panel rightly found it “appalling” that Hillsborough was referenced with respect to the policing approach and said the view that Hillsborough was caused by hooliganism was “woefully inaccurate”, but it was the fans’ collective knowledge of the truth of the disaster that gave them the skills to avoid catastrophe on the night and hold those in power to account.
after newsletter promotion
The report notes “it is remarkable that no one lost their life” in Paris and found “the collective actions of Liverpool FC supporters” to be “instrumental in protecting vulnerable people and averting what might well have been more serious injuries and deaths”.
Put simply, Liverpool fans saved the lives of those around them by behaving themselves, helping others through the crushing and keeping calm in the face of state-sanctioned police intimidation.
Then they stood up for one another, took on the governing body of European football and the might of a foreign government, fought for the truth and won. A people bearing the scars of Hillsborough would never have settled for any less.
The world now knows Uefa has Liverpool fans to thank for ensuring its showpiece football fixture did not end in mass death. The independent panel’s report has given Uefa a chance to change its ways. If the organisation doesn’t do so, football fans across Europe will never be safe in Uefa’s care.
Daniel Austin is a journalist and Liverpool supporter
