Liverpool F.C. fans ordeal at UEFA Paris show

Article posted by Coliseum, October 5^th, 2022

Image: Stade de France, Zakarie Faibis, CC BY-SA 4.0

The Premier League team Liverpool F.C. (UK) has released the following statement regarding the club’s continued response to the events surrounding the 2022 Champions League final in Paris.

‘Liverpool FC’ stated that following events surrounding the Champions League final in Paris (France) on May 28^th and the French Senate report on July 13^th which found that “multiple organisation failures” caused the “fiasco” at the Stade de France, the Liverpool F.C. has now handed over supporter testimonials, photographs and video files to the independent panel.

The Liverpool Football Club is a professional football club based in Liverpool, England, UK. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Founded in 1892, the club joined the Football League the following year and has played its home games at Anfield since its formation.

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The Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892.

The 2022 Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League Final was the final match of the 2021-2022 UEFA Champions League, the 67^th season of Europe’s premier club football tournament organized by the UEFA, and the 30^th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs’ Cup to the UEFA Champions League. It was played at the 80,698-capacity Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France, on May 28^th, 2022, between the Premier League club Liverpool F.C. (UK) and the Spanish professional football club Real Madrid CF (Spain). Real Madrid won the match 1-0 via a 59th-minute goal from Vinícius Júnior for a record-extending 14^th title, and their fifth in nine years.

The UEFA spectacle on May 28^th this year witnessed chaotic scenes outside the Stade de France, with supporters breaking through security cordons, jumping over large metal gates and police firing tear gas, thus causing a 35-minute delay in the start of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.

‘Liverpool FC’ further stated that immediately following events in Paris, the club called for an independent investigation into the issues leading up to and on the evening of the Champions League final in Paris. The club also called for supporters who were in attendance at the game to write in with their lived experiences in order to capture these personal events in words, photographs and, where appropriate, videos.

Over 9,000 supporters took time to write in and put on record their first-hand experiences and over 8,500 supporters gave the club permission to use their testimonials as part of an investigation. These testimonials have now been handed over to the UEFA independent panel, with all information enabling personal identification having been removed for data-protection reasons.

Said Billy Hogan, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Liverpool F.C., “I’d like to thank all our supporters who took time to write to us after Paris to tell us their first-hand experiences from that day and night. Having read and analyzed the testimonials, we know that our supporters suffered harrowing experiences that nobody should have to face going to a football match or any other events. We have analyzed the testimonials to pick out recurring themes from the submissions.”

He added, “The purpose of providing an executive summary and the testimonials themselves is to help the independent panel understand that human beings were caught up in the chaos on May 28^th and the experience of that day and night will live with them forever. We want the independent panel to understand that behind the report and analysis there are real stories of real people who were subjected to some appalling and totally avoidable experiences.”

Eight themes have been identified from the 9,000 testimonials – including congestion at access points, insufficient supporter travel information, significant issues at the outer ticket cordon check areas and inner turnstiles, and excessive riot policing tactics were heavily reported.

Lack of communication to supporters outside of the stadium, the emotional impact of the incorrect reason for delayed kick-off, issues with getting in and out of the stadium, and issues exiting the fan park were also identified from the analysis of the testimonials.

The Liverpool F.C. thanked the supporters again for the important role they have played by taking the time to submit their testimonies, photographs and videos.

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