Uefa’s report on Champions League final chaos: the main findings

“The panel has concluded that Uefa, as event owner, bears primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster.”

The panel found that it was reasonable of Uefa to delegate some security and safety operations to the French Football Federation (FFF), which regularly runs matches at the Stade de France, and defer to the local Préfecture de Police for policing duties.

“It did not follow that this absolved Uefa of responsibility. Uefa was central to the organisation of the event, and it should have monitored, supervised and assisted with security and safety measures, to ensure they were fit for purpose, and to identify and remedy problems before they arose in real time.”

“Uefa did remain involved throughout, and so it should. However, it did so ineffectually, without taking responsibility and without doing so through the appropriate staff: its own safety and security unit.”

The panel found that Uefa’s safety and security unit was “marginalised” by the Uefa events organisers and did not perform the required role of overseeing the safety requirements. Aleksander Ceferin took the decision to delay kick-off, while standing in a stairwell in the stadium VIP area; it was not taken by the police commander in the control room, in liaison with Uefa and the FFF’s safety advisers, as it should have been.

“The panel has not been able to identify any effective action taken by the safety and security unit … adviser present in the stadium control room on match day, including during the crisis.”

The policing operation was “defective”, the report states. The police prepared for serious problems of hooliganism, ignoring well-founded information from Merseyside police and clubs that there had been “no significant issues of