Liverpool urges UEFA to implement all recommendations from Champion League final report

Liverpool have urged UEFA to "take positive and transparent action" to avoid anymore "fundamental safety failings" following the chaotic scenes at the Champions League final.

The team called on the governing body to "fully enact the recommendations" made in the highly-critical independent report which said UEFA bore "primary responsibility for failures" which almost led to the final in Paris against Real Madrid becoming a "mass fatality catastrophe".

UEFA commissioned a team led by Portuguese Dr Tiago Brandao Rodrigues to look into issues of dangerous congestion, supporters being attacked by locals and tear-gassed by police and the all-round operation at the Stade de France in May 2022.

The report ultimately laid the blame at the feet of UEFA and the French authorities.

“Last night UEFA published the Independent Panel Report into the failings that we saw first-hand in Paris and it is within this context that we call on UEFA and others at the top of the football regulation pyramid to come together and take positive and transparent action to ensure there are no more ‘near misses’,” said a Liverpool statement.

“We implore UEFA to fully enact the recommendations as outlined by the panel - no matter how difficult - to ensure supporter safety is the number one priority at the heart of every UEFA football fixture.”

The statement added: “We knew that it was critical to understand why both Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters found ourselves in the situation where supporters’ safety was put at risk.

“We were determined to make sure a robust investigation was conducted in order that lessons are learned to ensure the safety of football supporters in Europe is never compromised again.”

The report also fully exonerated fans who were initially blamed by UEFA for arriving late at the ground and causing the kick-off to be delayed by more than half-an-hour.

French authorities also inaccurately claimed the problems were due to thousands of fans without tickets or forgeries trying to gain access.

“Shocking false narratives were peddled in the immediate aftermath of that night in Paris; narratives that have since been totally disproven,” said Liverpool’s statement.

“The independent French Senate report published in July 2022 found Liverpool supporters were unfairly and wrongly blamed for the chaotic scenes to divert attention from the real organisational failures.”

Many fans who attended the Stade de France were survivors, or relatives of victims, of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster in which 97 people were killed and for them in particular the events of that night were particularly traumatic.

The statement continued: “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.

“But even more concerning is the realisation that for families, friends and survivors of Hillsborough, Paris has only exacerbated their suffering.

“Our thoughts go out to all our fans who have suffered as a result of Paris and we would remind them of the mental health support we put in place in the days following the disaster that was the UEFA Champions League final in Paris.

“As a football club with proud history in Europe, we call on UEFA to do the right thing and implement the 21 recommendations to ensure the safety of all football supporters attending any future UEFA football match.”

Around 15,000 supporters - many Liverpool fans - were held for several hours in packed, stationary crowds near the turnstiles before the final in Paris.

Police also used tear gas and pepper spray against fans, including young children, with many crushed as they waited to be allowed inside.

The game was delayed by more than half an hour as fans were trapped outside the stadium.

Liverpool chief executive Billy Hogan said the club’s focus would now be on pushing UEFA to take action.

“From our perspective, this is sort of the end of the beginning of this process," he told the club's website.

"This is not the end of the process. This is where the hard work really needs to start now.

“I think it’s really important that the two things that we asked for were number one: an independent report so that we could understand what exactly happened, and number two: to ensure that this never happens again – and that’s the part that we need to move to now, is to make sure that this never happens again.

“It shouldn’t just be about finals. This is about all matches that take place and the behaviour of police, the operational delivery of these events needs to be looked at in the case-by-case basis to ensure that safety and fan safety, supporter safety, is at the heart of all of the operational planning that goes on.

“It can’t just be a focus on finals, it has to be a focus on all of the matches that we conduct across Europe and that’s really UEFA’s role and responsibility to deliver on that.

“So, effectively from our perspective we want to now see UEFA take these 21 recommendations and put them into practice.”

In the latest episode of From the North we ask should suicide prevention be taught in schools?