‘Be extremely cautious’: expert fears for European finals after night of violence

One of the authors of the independent report into the 2022 Champions League final has said the violence that followed AZ Alkmaar’s defeat by West Ham on Thursday shows Uefa has failed to learn lessons from the near-tragedy of Paris and warned English fans to be “extremely cautious” should they travel to next month’s finals in Istanbul and Prague.

Prof Clifford Stott said the storming by AZ ultras of a stand containing relatives of West Ham players was “exactly the kind of circumstances where people die” and that Uefa should have taken control of policing and stewarding plans after unrest in the Dutch city earlier that day.

“It’s Uefa’s event,” Stott said. “That they should be overseeing the exchange of information between stakeholders is one of the primary conclusions of our inquiry. While we accept that it’s a major challenge to deal with every single Uefa event in those ways, this is a semi-final, this is a major showcase event for Uefa and what we’re seeing is a situation where their oversight has not resulted in an effective interoperability between the various stakeholders.”

Uefa has not commented on the post-match violence but is expected to conduct an investigation. The governing body is understood to argue it is directly responsible only for matches it stages at neutral grounds, most commonly finals. This month, after the review’s recommendations, it announced plans to “enhance the existing safeguards for fans attending its club and national team competition finals”, which will come into effect in the coming weeks. Uefa deploys safety and security officers to other fixtures and monitors events at matches remotely.

One of the key recommendations in the independent review panel’s report into the Paris final, where