Revealed: Uefa safety consultant quit and expressed concerns in February

Serious concerns were raised about Uefa’s safety and security department earlier this year when an English safety expert with decades of experience quit his role as a consultant for European football’s governing body.

Steve Frosdick, originally a Metropolitan police officer, has dedicated his career to stadium safety in British and European football since the 1990s and has multiple advanced professional qualifications. He resigned from his Uefa consultancy in February, after 11 years in which he was employed to enhance its expertise, incident monitoring, and development and training programmes.

He is said to have become seriously unhappy with the direction of the department which since last year has been headed by Zeljko Pavlica, a close friend of the Uefa president, Aleksandr Ceferin. Frosdick is said to have believed that Uefa’s professionalism, expertise and development were being undermined, and he rejected a proposal to revise his contract, that would have downgraded his role.

Frosdick’s resignation and criticisms came less than four months before serious safety problems beset Uefa’s two end-of-season showpiece events: the Europa League final, where Rangers fans complained there was no water in the heat of Seville, and the horrific chaos suffered by Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters at the Champions League final in Paris.

The revelation of Frosdick’s departure will add to growing concerns about Uefa’s safety operation, and perceived cronyism in the appointment of Pavlica, which Uefa rejects. The Liverpool supporters’ trust Spirit of Shankly, which is representing fans who suffered the excessive delays, police brutality and violent attacks in Paris yet were officially blamed by Uefa for the problems, has renewed