2022 Champions League final report: Liverpool supporters cleared, UEFA to blame for crowd trouble
In May 2022, Liverpool and Real Madrid met outside of Paris, France to compete in the UEFA Champions League final to be crowned European club champions.
While Real Madrid won the game 1-0 with a 59th-minute goal from Vinicius Jr., the game was marred by crowd problems in front of the Stade de France, delaying kick-off and causing a significant proportion of the fans in attendance could not reach their places for considerable lengths of time.
As the delay progressed and the game was eventually played, reports and video of significant overcrowding outside the stadium and a violent, sometimes violent, police response began to pour in. Social media has been awash with videos of crowds huddled together, fans being tear-gassed and general chaos outside the venue.
After the game, UEFA commissioned an independent investigation into the incidents to uncover what had happened, paying close attention to these side-game events.
Although not yet publicly released, the release was leaked to a number of journalists, who then shared key excerpts. That’s all we know about the results so far.
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UEFA to blame for crowd problems in Champions League final 2022
An independent commission tasked with investigating the incidents outside the Stade de France before and during the 2022 Champions League final released a 158-page report detailing its conclusions on Monday 13 February.
In it, the report makes the blatant claim that it was only due to the luck and quick thinking of nearby fans in attendance that those present were not killed.
“It is remarkable that no one lost their life,” the report said. “All stakeholders consulted by the panel agreed that this situation was a near failure: a term used when an event becomes close to a mass-death catastrophe.”
The report claimed UEFA bore “primary responsibility” for the dangerous unrest outside the stadium in the hours leading up to the game. “The panel has concluded that UEFA, as the owner of the event, bears primary responsibility for omissions that nearly led to disaster,” read the report, which explained UEFA’s absence from the event’s security preparations and planning identified as a major failure.
“Senior officials at the top of UEFA allowed this to happen, although the panel acknowledged the flaws in their model at senior management level were well known.”
Liverpool supporters cleared of wrongdoing
Furthermore, the report claimed that while Liverpool fans were originally accused by UEFA of causing the riots, the opposite was actually true. The report said the actions of Liverpool supporters in France that day prevented the situation from de-escalating further.
“The collective actions of Liverpool FC supporters are likely to have been instrumental in protecting vulnerable people and potentially averting more serious injuries and deaths,” the commission noted.
Finally, the report blamed UEFA for blaming Liverpool fans for the unrest outside the stadium in Paris.
What happened at the 2022 Champions League final?
The situation outside the Stade de France in Saint-Denis was one of utter chaos and almost loss of life, the 158-page independent report found.
According to a multitude of reports from journalists in and around the stadium in the hours leading up to the 2022 Champions League final, fans had been in place for hours and managing the flow of people in and around the venue was a nightmare.
The closer the game got, the more Reports from and around The stadium suggested that the organization for the event was botched. Liverpool fans complained about closed gates and security herding them through dangerously narrow canals. In the meantime, some reported that pickpocketing was rampant in the crowded area.
Accordingly multiple reports out of journalists In and around the events, first on social media and then confirmed by BT Sport television coverage, some fans outside the stadium were tear gassed. At the time, however, it was unclear what the reason for the use of tear gas was Some journalists were caught accidentally in the crossfire.
“The dangerous conditions in the concourse outside the turnstiles were exacerbated by the police’s use of tear gas on disorderly groups of locals, as well as the use of pepper spray on supporters attempting to gain entry with valid tickets,” it said the independent report.
UEFA’s eventual suggestion that the fans’ “late arrival” caused the delay was thoroughly refuted by a number of journalists on the ground, with fans often waiting hours in dangerous environments to get into the venue. As more and more worrying facts emerged as the days went by, UEFA kept stating that fans were to blame for the unrest. The independent report clarified that there was no evidence to support this claim and accused UEFA of spreading disinformation.
“The panel comes with a sense of genuine concern at the lack of insight into the events of May 28 and the failure to recognize the role of the authorities,” the report said. “The panel is also concerned by a number of sharp differences in the facts of what happened and a general default position of blaming Liverpool supporters without proper evidence.
“Claims that late, ticketless supporters were either the root cause or contributed to the dangerous events have had a particular resonance at Hillsborough, where similar claims were made… and persisted for decades before being widely refuted.
“Senior officials at the top of UEFA allowed this to happen, although the panel acknowledged the flaws in their model at senior management level were well known.”
Finally, the report criticized UEFA and French security forces for deleting security footage of the incidents around the stadium. The report claimed the panel was “amazed that the policing model was influenced by a Hillsborough-based view of Liverpool hooliganism,” adding that it “should have been obvious” to retain security footage that French authorities claimed it had was “automatically” deleted.
The Commission makes 21 recommendations to improve safety
The independent commission investigating the events surrounding the 2022 Champions League final has issued 21 recommendations to UEFA to improve spectator safety at future events.
Many of the recommendations contained in the report relate to planning and coordinating security measures around these large crowded events.
For example, the report recommends that “UEFA should ensure that its security department has oversight and primary responsibility for the security and service components of Champions League final operations.”
In this sense, the report recommends that “UEFA’s security department should work in advance with host police commanders, support access to relevant expertise and invite them to observe quarter-finals and semi-finals and gain experience with the clubs’ supporters. “
The panel also said that UEFA should allow the local venue security team to be “directly and more fully involved in planning a match and conducting risk assessments”.
The full 21 points of recommendations are available here, as reported by The Guardian.
It’s unclear what the impact of the report’s findings will be, but select media figures made significant claims after the report’s release and called for those responsible to be replaced.
Liverpool statement expresses ‘disappointment’ at report leak
When the independent commission’s report was leaked on February 13, there was speculation that the leak of the report was deliberately timed by UEFA to minimize the damaging impact of its conclusions.
Writer from Liverpool Daniel Austin reports that this was indeed the case, as UEFA itself released the report’s results just ahead of Liverpool’s high-profile Premier League derby game against Everton, hoping they would be swallowed up by coverage of the match. The knockout rounds of the Champions League also begin this week, meaning the report would be further minimized in terms of coverage of European competition.
Liverpool reacted quickly and released a statement condemning the way the report was released.
“It is very disappointing that a report of such importance, of such importance to football fans’ lives and future safety, is leaked and released in this way,” the club’s statement read. “The independent panel has been working on this for over eight months and it is only right and proper to release the contents of the report in an appropriate manner to our supporters. We will wait to receive a copy of the report and digest it thoroughly before commenting further.”
Where is the 2023 Champions League final?
The 2023 UEFA Champions League final is currently scheduled to be played at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.
The stadium was originally set to host the 2021 Champions League final, but the event had to be relocated due to the COVID-19 pandemic and instead moved to the Estadio do Dragao in Porto, Portugal.
Ataturk Stadium previously hosted the 2005 Champions League final, which saw Liverpool’s famous comeback against AC Milan.
It is unclear at this time whether the widespread devastation caused by the earthquake in Turkey will affect Istanbul’s ability to host an event of this magnitude. In early February, after the devastation, UEFA announced that €200,000 in relief supplies would be sent to Turkey to help the country prepare for the event.