UEFA president apologises and admits “mistake” during Champions League final in Stade de France

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has offered his apology for last season’s Champions League final, held in the Stade de France, between Real Madrid and Liverpool.

Last week, UEFA have announced that a refund scheme will be set up for fans who were affected by the chaotic scenes that preceded the game. A review commissioned by UEFA, released after an 8-month-long investigation, blamed the organisation itself for the pre-match incidents, while also lambasting the French FA and the country’s police authorities for their use of tear gas, as well as the lengthy queues and closed gates which led to crushing around security barriers. It also found no trace of the “massive and industrial ticket fraud” denounced by France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin in the wake of the event, exonerating Liverpool fans.

In an upcoming wide-ranging interview with Gary Neville’s The Overlap, transcribed by The Times, Ceferin says he feels “sorry for what happened” and has promised to “make sure that it doesn’t happen again.” The UEFA president recalled he was meeting the King of Spain Felipe VI at the stadium when someone said to him there was a problem with some entrances with the fans.

“We didn’t know how serious that was back then, because UEFA does not have jurisdiction outside the stadium. The French police did not communicate with us”, said Ceferin. The Slovenian executive also apologised for UEFA’s initial statement that blamed Liverpool and ticketless fans for the chaos outside the Stade de France. “It was a mistake from our side. It was hard to check what was right and what was wrong, we got some strange information.”

GFFN | Bastien Cheval