Champions League report vindicates everything we Liverpool fans fought for

Last summer I sat in a television studio in central Paris, ready to discuss the fiasco at the Champions League final the previous weekend, which I had attended as a Liverpool supporter.

It was my final media appearance of an exhausting day and as a fifth set of makeup marinated into my skin under the sizzling refulgent lights the news presenter posed his first question to me: “Why is it so important to Liverpool fans to speak up about what happened?”

The reason was that supporters who had attended the final sought to counter the narrative espoused by Uefa and the French authorities in the aftermath – that match-goers who had been sprayed with teargas by riot police, mugged by gangs of local youths and locked in perilous crushes outside the stadium as they attempted to attend European football’s showpiece event had brought the carnage upon themselves.

After nine long months the independent panel commissioned by Uefa to investigate the disarray has released its report. The 158 pages of findings repeatedly highlight three key themes: Uefa comprehensively failed to ensure safety and security in its role as event organiser, the French authorities did not cooperate with one another to any kind of acceptable degree and there is no evidence that mass ticketlessness, ticket forgery or any other negative behaviour on the part of Liverpool fans contributed to what almost became a “mass fatality catastrophe”.

The report vindicates everything Liverpool supporters have fought for since it became clear those in power were trying to shift blame on to fans, even before the match belatedly kicked off. It is a meticulous, accurate and at times stupefying piece of work that finds Uefa ultimately responsible.

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