FA backed Ceferin for Uefa re-election weeks after final chaos in Paris

The Football Association gave official support for Aleksander Ceferin to be re-elected Uefa president and sent a written endorsement, just three weeks after Uefa’s catastrophic organisation of the Champions League final in May. Senior FA officials including the chair, Debbie Hewitt, were at the final between Liverpool and Real Madrid at the Stade de France, where Liverpool supporters suffered crushing and violent policing, then were falsely blamed by Uefa.

For weeks after the match Liverpool supporters spoke out and provided evidence to counter Uefa’s claims that fans had been late and thousands without valid tickets overwhelmed the turnstiles. Many Liverpool fans who had survived the Hillsborough disaster, where South Yorkshire police told similar lies, said the experience in Paris exacerbated their trauma.

Uefa announced an independent review days after the 28 May final, the French Senate set up an inquiry and a ministerial official, Michel Cadot, conducted a rapid investigation which identified a series of disastrous failings in a report on 16 June.

On the same day, the FA chief executive, Mark Bullingham, wrote to the board of English football’s governing body, asking them to formally endorse Ceferin for re-election. Hewitt and the board agreed, and the FA wrote to Uefa giving its official backing. The FA did not make this public then, nor in the eight months since, until the organisation confirmed it when asked by the Guardian this week.

Despite the chaos at the final, no European FA put forward any alternative candidate by the January deadline, and Ceferin is set to be re-elected for another four years next month, unopposed.

Ian Byrne, the Liverpool MP and supporter who was at the match and has called on Ceferin to