Organisers of last year’s chaotic Champions League final in Athens have come under renewed pressure to explain their handling of the game after leaked documents showed they ‘ignored’ warnings that the fixture would descend into chaos.
Thirty pages of confidential correspondence obtained by lawyers acting on behalf of Liverpool fans outline how both Merseyside Police and Liverpool Football Club made detailed concerns about security, transport and ticketing at least three weeks before the showpiece match.
However, despite giving the club, police and UEFA assurances that all the problems would be tackled, the organisers did nothing.
More than 40 supporters, who were shut out of the final despite having valid tickets, are trying to raise money to pursue their demands for compensation through the Greek courts.
Simon Gibson, a partner with Merseyside-based Kirwans Solicitors which is spearheading the legal action, said the newly-released paperwork provided fresh impetus to the claim.
“For the first time, we have clear evidence that at a number of meetings, Athens organisers ignored serious complaints made both by Liverpool and Merseyside Police.
“I believe that if those concerns had been adequately addressed, there might well not have been the sort of difficulties which were witnessed on the night of the game and many fans would not have been left disappointed, assaulted and considerably out of pocket.”
The papers, which comprise minutes of meetings and official reports, show that Greek organisers met with delegates from UEFA, police and both the finalists, Liverpool and AC Milan, in Athens on May 4th last year.
The meeting was presented with a list of concerns by the Anfield club’s representative, Ged Poynton, including the absence of proper crowd control systems, turnstiles and measures to combat the use of forged tickets.
A “confidential” record of what happened next explains that the Athens organising committee “noted the points made and assured the meeting that the perimeter would be secure and that queues would be managed”.
The Merseyside party’s worries were raised in a series of telephone conversations with both UEFA and the director of the Athens venue before another meeting, this time at Anfield on May 17th – six days before the final took place.
Liverpool’s Ged Poynton was again in attendance, along with two Merseyside Police officers, including Chief Superintendent Dave Lewis. More detailed concerns were raised about transport and crowd control with the session concluding that some of the measures in place “will not work”.
Simon Gibson said he hoped UEFA might prevail on the Athens organisers to accept the flaws in their arrangements and save Liverpool fans any added stress and expense in continuing their legal action. Kirwans Solicitors is acting on behalf of the supporters on a pro bono basis.
“Football’s governing bodies like to say that they act ‘for the good of the game’. Cutting short the need for a court hearing would certainly be good for football and for the fans involved.
“We believe that UEFA has a responsibility in this instance because, regardless of the individual failings of the Greek organisers, the Champions’ League final last year and every year is a UEFA event.
“In the last month, the federation has admitted there were problems in Athens last May and decided to change arrangements for this year’s final in Moscow. I hope it intervenes now with its Greek colleagues to bring closure to this unhappy episode.”