Report on violence during Champions League final finds 'abject failings' by UEFA
Police stand in front of Liverpool fans during the UEFA Champions League Final at the Stade de France, Paris.
A new report into violent scenes in Paris at the European Champions League final in May has found that there were “abject failings” by UEFA, while there was aggressive policing before, during, and after the match.
The report, carried out by a five-member independent panel — including a Queen's University Belfast expert — and published today, said it was fortuitous that nobody was killed. But it said that thousands who travelled to watch the game between Liverpool and Real Madrid, including children, were left traumatised by scenes including tear-gassing by police, and robberies carried out at knife-point by local gangs as fans were leaving the game.
The new report, , contains more than 50 findings relating to pre-match preparation by UEFA and the Paris agencies; policing; crowd safety and event management; fans’ experiences; and UEFA’s role and responsibilities.
The report is based on the written evidence of 485 women, men and children, along with eyewitness accounts from international journalists.
Among the findings was that it was re-traumatising for survivors of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which led to the deaths of 97 people during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.
Among those on the panel was Professor Emeritus Phil Scraton from the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast, who conducted a report into the Hillsborough disaster. He also co-authored the ‘Left Out In The Cold’ report, published by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties in 2021, which called for reform of the Irish coronial system.
Professor Scraton said: “It is difficult to comprehend the sequence of events that constituted the debacle in Paris, leaving so many people physically injured, psychologically harmed and financially compromised.
"Many left before the match, those who stayed were subjected to further attacks by riot police and gangs on leaving the stadium and arriving at local stations.”
He added: “Responsibility for the collapse in authority, management, and safety, lies with those organising and administering the event.”
Dr Deena Haydon, another member of the panel, said that the experiences of fans before, during, and after the game was “an indictment of all authorities involved: UEFA; the Paris police; local and central government; and the stadium owners”.
She added: “These stark and painful testimonies, particularly those concerning children, families, the elderly and those with disabilities, reveal the cumulative, long-lasting impact on them individually and collectively. For those fans who survived the 1989 Hillsborough disaster and all that followed, Paris was retraumatising.”
The start of the game between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France on May 28 was delayed by 36 minutes amid safety concerns at the stadium.
The report said that fans were held for several hours in a “bottleneck” close to the stadium and again at queues at “malfunctioning turnstiles”, adding that “fans were subjected to unprovoked tear-gassing by the paramilitary police”.
It said that many fans who had paid “significant amounts of money for match tickets, travel and accommodation” did not enter the stadium.
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