UEFA’S incompetence beggars belief

by Alan Green

Monday, March 16, 2009

THE one thing you can be sure about with UEFA is that you can’t rely on them to do what’s in the best interests of football. There have been two more examples this week.

Supposedly, Roma were on their last warning as regards the appalling behaviour of their fans. So how did UEFA react when an Arsenal fan was stabbed and a fans’ bus attacked prior to the game on Wednesday night? They merely confirmed the Stadio Olimpico remains the venue for this season’s final.

The pathetic UEFA spokesman William Gaillard admitted security was inadequate but said it was too late to find an alternative venue: "It is difficult to move such an event just two months before it takes place."

What about addressing the perverse decision to play the final there in the first place?

Then there’s the situation regarding Liverpool and the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

The club wrote to UEFA as far back as October asking if, they were still engaged in the Champions League, they would not be asked to play on April 15. Fans feel very strongly that Liverpool, who haven’t played on that date since, should never play on that date — as they put it: "a day for remembrance, not football".

UEFA can’t guarantee it: they’ll do their ‘best’ and will take Liverpool’s representations into account when making the draw on Friday. "The chances are very good that they will not have to play on that day."

No they’re not: those chances are 50-50 and that’s too big a risk. Say it now UEFA: Liverpool will not be made to play on that date and if it inconveniences TV, then so be it.

Or is UEFA as stupid as their chief executive, Michel Platini, is plainly anti-English?

This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, March 16, 2009