UEFA 'primarily responsible' for nightmare scenes at 2022 Champions League final, Liverpool fans vindicated - report

UEFA are «primarily responsible» for the «near disaster» that saw thousands of Liverpool fans suffer a nightmare ordeal ahead of the 2022 Champions League final in Paris, according to a review commissioned by European football’s governing body. The damning report uncovered a catalogue of errors from UEFA and the French authorities, including the police for «indiscriminately» firing tear gas and pepper spray that led to crushes outside the Stade de France before the showpiece match with Real Madrid.

Ad The report also revealed a failure of organisations to work together and said «there was no Plan B when things went wrong». Champions LeagueHow to watch Borussia Dortmund v Chelsea in the Champions League24 MINUTES AGO «The dangerous conditions on the concourse outside the turnstiles were compounded by the police deploying tear gas at disorderly groups of locals, as well as using pepper spray on supporters trying to gain entrance with valid tickets,» the report states.

«It is remarkable that no one lost their life. All the stakeholders interviewed by the panel have agreed that this situation was a near-miss: a term used when an event almost turns into a mass fatality catastrophe.» Liverpool fans were blamed on the night for arriving late and having ticketless fans in their ranks – but this was found to have been «wrongly inflated and exaggerated» by the report.

«The Panel draws the inference that they have been made [ticketless fans claims] primarily to deflect from responsibility for planning and operational failures. This is reprehensible and has involved UEFA, UEFA Events SA, FFF, the Prefecture de Police, Government Officials and French Ministers.» The match was moved to Paris in February 2022, three months before the