UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin phoned chairs of various Liverpool supporters' boards last month to thank them for their relentless fight for change after the harrowing events of the 2022 Champions League final.
It has also been revealed that the Football Association issued a private apology to at-the-time Spirit of Shanky head Joe Blott and head of the Disabled Supporters Association Ted Morris for their backing of Ceferin to be re-elected as president just weeks after the distressing scenes outside of the Stade de France.
Supporters who attended the Champions League final in Saint-Denis, Paris on May 28 last year were the subject of heavy-handing police tactics, which included being tear-gassed and beaten with batons, while many supporters with legitimate tickets were locked out of the showpiece final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
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In the weeks after the final, the European game's governing body, UEFA, attempted to pin the blame on the alleged 'lateness' of Liverpool supporters, while members of the French government tried to peddle similar lies to those told after the 1989 Hillsborough disaster as a method to acquit themselves of blame.
However, in February, an independent report commissioned by UEFA exonerated Reds supporters of any wrongdoing and instead noted that the quick thinking of those outside the Stade de France's X, Y and Z gates in fact noted it as "remarkable" that there were no casualties due to the clear failings of the French police and UEFA - who had drawn up the safety procedures for the final.
More than a year after the sickening scenes in the Paris suburb, the chair of the LDSA, Morris, has revealed that UEFA Deputy General Secretary Giorgio Marchetti visited Merseyside last month where a call with Ceferin was arranged.
During the phone call, the UEFA president is said to have thanked Blott and Morris for their relentless work in the weeks and months after the final, which included an appearance at the French Senate to detail the true happening of events outside the Stade de France on May 28, 2022.
“Ceferin thanked myself and Joe [Blott] for our involvement in the last 12 months for working with UEFA to bring about positive change for football supporters," said Morris, in an interview with This is Anfield. “So we’ve basically spoken with the top one, two, three [people] within UEFA.
“I think it was very sincere, just the fact that he did it in the first place. He didn’t have to do that, I’m just Ted from the Disabled Supporters Association. This is the head of UEFA.
“To show the intent by flying into Liverpool to do this just shows a willingness for change. And to facilitate change, people have to be willing and open to change. And by what’s happening with UEFA, it’s clear [for me] to see.”
Meanwhile, in the same interview, Blott revealed that members of the FA had been in touch after it was found that chief executive Mark Bullingham had written to board members just weeks after the final and asked them to provide their backing for Ceferin ahead of UEFA's re-election process in early 2023.
As reported by the Guardian earlier this year, the FA didn't disclose this information at the time of their support in June 2022 and only did so when questioned by the same publication eight months later.
Asked about his dialogue with English football's governing body in the aftermath of the ordeal, Blott said: “We’ve had a long conversation with them. We were concerned that they hadn’t done a great deal in backing us.
“They backed Ceferin to be president [of UEFA] again, at the same time we were going through all this. They’ve reflected on that and said that they were wrong. So we’ve had not only UEFA apologise but also the FA apologising"
He added: “We know that the FA didn’t apologise, they were actually complicit in some of the stuff around Hillsborough, so it’s a significant and seismic shift in terms of how fans have now genuinely influenced how football is run.”
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