Real Madrid have rejected Uefa’s plan to compensate fans who attended the Champions League final against Liverpool in Paris last May, and will instead offer their supporters legal advice so that they can sue for damages.
After discussions with European football’s governing body, Madrid described the proposal to refund the cost of some tickets as “insufficient”, insisted that “all supporters suffered” and announced their refusal to take part in the process.
After an independent review absolved supporters of blame and found Uefa had “primary responsibility” for the catastrophic organisational and safety failures, the governing body proposed a package in which all Liverpool fans who bought from their club’s allocation would get their ticket money back but the same would not apply to Madrid supporters.
In a strongly worded statement, which cited supporters needing medical attention and even hospital treatment, Madrid demanded that Uefa “rectify” its proposal and “assume full responsibility”. The club said they had held discussions with Uefa but that their hopes that the scheme would be commensurate with the “gravity” of events were not met. They dismissed as unacceptable a package that consists of refunding tickets under conditions including not getting into the stadium before the scheduled kick-off or not being able to enter at all.
“The report, requested by Uefa itself, makes clear that all the supporters who attended the final were victims of their inadequate organisation and saw their security and physical safety compromised,” the statement said.
“Beyond the question of whether or not supporters were able to enter the stadium or do so at the correct time, which in any case was due to the exceptional behaviour of fans of both clubs, the reality is that all fans suffered an inadmissible delay in the beginning of the game as well as unacceptable insecurity both in entering the stadium and in leaving it, together with additional grave damage such as robberies, assaults and threats.
“For this reason, Real Madrid have decided not to collaborate with the limited compensation procedure proposed by Uefa. In these circumstances, in the coming days the club will provide a telephone service so that all those Real Madrid fans and members who suffered any kind of damage at the 2022 Champions League final can assess any claims against Uefa that they consider opportune in defence of their legitimate rights.”
Law firms representing almost 3,000 Liverpool supporters caught up in the chaos have said Uefa’s offer of a ticket refund does not go far enough and that they will press ahead with legal claims.
Uefa said in response to Madrid’s statement that it “continues to believe the scheme is fair and accurately reflects the relative problems faced by fans on the night”.
It said: “Real Madrid is the only party which did not cooperate with the independent review. Furthermore, despite several requests made by Uefa, Real Madrid declined to contribute to the planning of the refund scheme and finally declined the invitation to process refunds to entitled people who bought their tickets from the club.
“The special refund scheme is for fans most affected when accessing the Stade de France on 28 May 2022 regardless of the team they support. The scheme has been designed on that basis.”
