Liverpool fans’ lawyers give Uefa a week to agree to compensate or face claim

Lawyers representing more than 1,000 Liverpool fans who suffered injury and trauma at last season’s Champions League final have given Uefa one week to accept full responsibility for events in Paris and agree to pay appropriate compensation or face litigation proceedings.

Uefa was found this week to have “primary responsibility” for the appalling scenes outside the Stade de France by an independent panel commissioned by European football’s governing body after last May’s final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Uefa has apologised to supporters of both clubs but has not accepted responsibility for the panel’s findings. Its president, Aleksander Ceferin, has not made any comment on the damning report.

More than 2,600 Liverpool fans caught up in the chaos intend to sue Uefa for compensation. On Friday the organisation was notified that legal claims will be escalated unless it takes responsibility for putting supporters in danger and shows willingness to discuss appropriate redress. The letter was sent to Ceferin and Uefa’s general counsel Simon Drake by Pogust Goodhead, a group litigation firm, and Binghams Solicitors, a personal injury law firm based in Liverpool, and gives Uefa until next Friday to respond. The firms are acting on behalf of more than 1000 fans, with another 1,000 expected to join the claim soon.

They said a formal letter before action, a step towards issuing litigation proceedings, which would set out the extent of the physical and psychological harm suffered by every one of their clients outside the State de France, would be served after 24 February in the absence of a satisfactory response. The group litigation action would be bought before the English courts by Pogust Goodhead and Binghams Solicitors.