Lawyers preparing imminent legal claims against Uefa on behalf of Liverpool supporters who suffered injury and trauma at last May’s Champions League final say the case has been strengthened by the damning findings of Uefa’s own review into the near-disaster.
More than 2,600 people caught up in the hours of chaos and safety failures at the Stade de France in Paris have signed up to sue football’s European confederation for compensation. The central finding of the review panel, which was chaired by a Portuguese MP, Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, was that Uefa had “primary responsibility” for the safety failures that almost led to a “mass fatality catastrophe”. The panel’s report said Uefa had “marginalised” its own safety and security unit and that people in senior leadership positions at the organisation had known about this but failed to address it.
A “special refund scheme for fans”, mentioned by Uefa with no explanation in its immediate response to the report’s publication, will be insufficient to compensate people for their loss if it is merely returning the cost of tickets, the lawyers said.
Clare Campbell and Jill Paterson, partners at Leigh Day solicitors, who are representing more than 600 people, said: “The findings of the Rodrigues review confirm our initial instincts and what fans have been telling us about the appalling events at the Stade de France. We will now press ahead with a group action on behalf of the fans that we represent.”
They plan to notify Uefa of a legal claim “without delay”, they said, and are “looking to commence the legal process as soon as possible”.
Of the refund scheme, they said: “It’s important to understand that what is required here is more than just a ticket refund. It’s about accountability and about learning lessons for the future. It’s also about ensuring that fans who have been injured and traumatised as a result of this frightening incident also receive proper compensation for what they’ve endured.”
One of the Liverpool supporters represented by Leigh Day, Andrew Patterson, 32, is diabetic and has spoken of struggling with enduring trauma from a terrifying ordeal in the crush and congestion at France’s national stadium before the showpiece final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
“It was the worst day of my life and I’m still dealing with the issues now,” he said. “I still can’t deal with big crowds, I still wake up with night terrors, I can’t recount the story without tears. It’s messed me up in a big way.”
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
His insulin was destroyed in the heat during the long period Liverpool supporters were crammed together at a disorganised access point before the match, putting him in a “really dangerous position”, he said. He was then pushed against a metal fence at the turnstiles, which tore from his arm the sensor that monitors his blood sugar levels.
“I started panicking because I had no way of monitoring my sugars and no medication. I wasn’t able to get replacement insulin until 3am the next day, which meant I was without medication for around eight hours.
“Uefa didn’t just ruin the day; for a lot of people, they ruined lives. To say they dealt with it poorly is an understatement. It shouldn’t have been allowed to happen.”
More than 2,000 supporters have signed up for litigation with the law firm Pogust Goodhead, in partnership with the Liverpool firm Binghams. Tony Winterburn, partner at Pogust Goodhead, said: “This is a hugely damning report for Uefa, which clearly strengthens the case we are bringing on behalf of Liverpool fans.
“We are calling on Uefa and in particular its president, Aleksander Ceferin, personally, to do the right thing and publicly accept responsibility. There must be compensation for all those fans affected by this horrific event.
“It is clear Uefa’s safety plan was written around a myth that Liverpool fans were going to cause trouble that day and it is imperative that myth stops now to avoid further unacceptable incidents occurring in the future, with possibly tragic consequences.”
When publishing the report, Uefa repeated an apology made to supporters of both clubs after the final for the experience they suffered, adding that the organisation also apologised “for the messages released prior to and during the game which had the effect of unjustly blaming them for the situation leading to the delayed kick-off”. However, Uefa did not say that it accepted responsibility or the panel’s findings, saying only that it was “assessing them against its own analysis of the organisation of the event and facts that occurred around it”.
Uefa has been approached for comment about the legal claims.
