Soccer: Parry defends Liverpool from Uefa accusations

We produced a report for Uefa a week beforehand predicting, sadly, all of the things that did go wrong'

Staff and agencies
Monday June 4, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

Liverpool fans emphatically not causing trouble in Athens. Photograph: Milos Bicanski/Getty Images

Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry today stepped in to defend his club's fans after they reacted furiously to news Uefa had branded them the worst in Europe.

The claims will appear in a Uefa report to be handed to the government in the wake of shameful scenes at the Champions League final in Athens. Liverpool fans are accused of stealing tickets from their fellow supporters, charging the gates to get into the ground without tickets and causing trouble outside the stadium, which ended with local police using tear gas.

Now Uefa, in the wake of complaints from Anfield over the way they handled ticket allocation and match security on the night, have hit back with a dossier claiming to show 25 incidents involving Liverpool fans since 2003 in Europe - more than any other club. "What other set of fans steal tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children?" asked Uefa's director of communications William Gaillard yesterday. "We know who caused most of the trouble in Athens."

But Parry hit back this morning, insisting Uefa should focus on their own shortcomings in their organisation of the Champions League final rather than trying to "deflect attention" on to Liverpool fans. "The shortcomings in the management of the situation in Athens were apparent to anyone who was there," he said. "These latest comments from Uefa should not deflect attention from that reality. What is most surprising about the latest comments from Mr Gaillard is that on the eve of the final, he quite rightly commented that Liverpool supporters 'have a tradition of good behaviour'.

"To have a stadium with no counting system and no turnstiles is unforgivable for any standard of game, let alone a major final. We produced a report for Uefa a week beforehand predicting, sadly, all of the things that did go wrong. They knew and we knew that thousands of fans would travel without tickets and we stressed the need for a proper check at the outer cordon."

Sports minister Richard Caborn, who is due to meet Uefa president Michel Platini tomorrow, added: "I have a lot of sympathy with the Liverpool fans who paid their hard-earned money for genuine tickets but couldn't get into the ground. The reasons for this need an urgent explanation. We have already raised the matter with the Greek authorities through our embassy in Athens and government officials are also talking with Uefa. I will be putting this issue high on the agenda at a meeting I am to have with Michel Platini."

Earlier Liverpool's lord mayor, Paul Clark, who was at the match, had led the fan response. "Uefa appears to be trying to avoid the blame for the disorganisation of the final," he said. "To make matters worse, instead of looking at their own faults Uefa is blaming the people of Liverpool. Saying this is typical of Liverpool fans is unfair and reflects badly on the image of the city."

Les Lawson, spokesman for the official Liverpool FC supporters' club, was equally angered by Uefa's condemnation. "This is typical of Uefa," he fumed. "Rather than look at their own shortcomings, they want to shove the blame somewhere else. The fact they are not willing to stand up and take responsibility is worrying for fans, because that means they will never learn from their mistakes."

"Uefa is dragging Liverpool's name through the mud to deflect attention from themselves," added council leader Warren Bradley. "Big governing bodies like Uefa always look for scapegoats and never accept any blame. There should be a full and appropriate investigation. There is very little information about what actually went wrong. It was only a small minority who caused problems but the people at the top of Uefa think they have the divine right to criticise people."

*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog

Soccer:Government wants answers over treatment of Liverpool fans

Andrew Culf in Athens
Thursday May 24, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

The government today demanded an explanation from the Greek authorities over the treatment of Liverpool fans who were baton-charged after being denied entry to the Champions League final in Athens last night.

The call came as thousands of disconsolate supporters headed back to the UK after seeing their dreams of European glory dashed by AC Milan's 2-1 win at the Olympic Stadium.

Chaotic disturbances outside the ground soured the evening, as fans with tickets were turned away and sprayed with tear gas by riot police.

The government today demanded an explanation from the Greek authorities over the treatment of Liverpool fans who were baton-charged after being denied entry to the Champions League final in Athens last night.

The call came as thousands of disconsolate supporters headed back to the UK after seeing their dreams of European glory dashed by AC Milan's 2-1 win at the Olympic Stadium.

Chaotic disturbances outside the ground soured the evening, as fans with tickets were turned away and sprayed with tear gas by riot police.

Today, British embassy officials in Athens said they would be raising the matter with the Greek authorities.

"We have received reports from some fans that they were prevented from entering the ground despite having tickets, and were then the subject of heavy-handed treatment by the police," a spokesman said.

Police also used batons against fans who had genuine tickets for the game. Supporters were angered after being told the ground was full to its 63,800 capacity, and trouble erupted as they attempted to find a way around police cordons.

Officers at the scene told the fans it was not their fault, and it appeared that supporters with forged tickets had got into the stadium earlier.

Last night's disorder was the latest involving European police forces and supporters from English clubs.

Earlier this season, Manchester United complained their fans had come under "unprovoked attack" on the terraces in Rome, while Tottenham complained about baton charges on their supporters in Seville.

Around 2,000 people were still outside the stadium when last night's final kicked off. Pete Evans, 37, a BT worker from Dublin, said: "This is crazy. I paid € 2,000 (£1,350) to be here."

Kenny Roberts, a 19-year-old from Norris Green, Liverpool, said: "I've got no chance of using the ticket now. I've been gassed and hit on the back of the head by the police ... this is just disgraceful. It's terrible organisation."

Two Liverpool fans from Norway, who had paid €3,000 each for travel packages, headed disconsolately back into central Athens 30 minutes after kick-off.

Rune Loholt, a 35-year-old from Trondheim, said fans with forgeries had got past the authorities, meaning genuine supporters were not let in. Frode Forsdahl, 32, a student from Trondheim, said: "We've been pepper-sprayed and hit in the face with clubs. We'll have to give up."

Uefa's communications chief, William Gaillard, put the blame squarely on Liverpool supporters. "Unfortunately in Britain it is the behaviour," he said. "Liverpool fans are responsible for the problems before, during and after the game."

After the match, hundreds of Liverpool supporters gathered in the centre of the Greek capital to chant their support for the team into the small hours. Police praised the behaviour of the fans, saying there had been no trouble and no violent incidents.

More than 25,000 Liverpool fans and around 17,000 Milan fans were estimated to be in the city for the match, with 8,500 police officers on duty.

A total of 230 people who had been detained with forged tickets were released today, and no further action will be taken against them. Police said 216 of them were from the UK, and nine from Italy.

There were some hard luck stories even before the game got underway. Clifton Harrison, 33, from Liverpool, had four tickets - which he had bought for £600 each in Britain - stolen from an envelope in his pocket on the underground early yesterday.

"I am hugely disappointed - I spent all last week sourcing the tickets," Mr Harrison, who works in business development for Price Waterhouse Coopers, said. "I could have cried when it happened."

Another 150 fans were stranded at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport after one of 37 charter flights scheduled to take 8,000 people to Athens was cancelled yesterday.

The Jet Time Airways flight was unable to take off because of technical problems. Ben Whitehead, a 22-year-old computer technician from Huddersfield, who had paid £550 to travel on it, said: "I am absolutely devastated. I have been crying."

*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog

Soccer: Liverpool tickets Q&A

By Gordon Farquhar BBC Five Live sports news correspondent

Tickets were in demand for the Champions League final

The Champions League final between Liverpool and AC Milan was marred for some fans after they failed to obtain tickets - or even entry - into the game in Athens.

Police and fans clashed in ugly scenes outside the ground before the game.

BBC Sport looks at the issues surrounding the ticketing arrangements for the game.

Q. What was the ticket allocation?
Officially, Uefa made 17,000 tickets available to each club for a stadium that had a capacity of 63,000.

Q. Why did Liverpool only allocate 11,000 to their fans?
Liverpool's explanation was that for every major event like this they have an obligation to their own sponsors, their former players and the like.

Any club would use the occasion to award tickets as a thank you to those who work for them, and Liverpool is a club with a strong sense of history and community.

It is not unusual, or unreasonable, although fans might question why so many were distributed in this way.

Q. Many of the tickets for the Champions League final are given to the Uefa family. What is meant by this?
This is a phrase often coined by the Fifa president Sepp Blatter who likes to refer to the 'football family'.

It is a conveniently loose generic definition that covers almost anyone who has anything to do with the game.

Uefa might consider that to include all their member associations and federations, clubs, officials, administrators, referees, sponsors, suppliers etc.

Q. How were the tickets allocated?
It is a bit like a big wedding: You know what the maximum number of guests is, so you start off with the ones you have to invite, then draw up a list of the ones you now want to invite and squeeze as many of them in as possible.

Some of the top-line sponsors will know as part of their deal that they will be given a certain allocation for matches.

Q. Why were there empty seats?
Lots of reasons. Security is one, to allow for proper segregation rows of seats are left unallocated to allow for the stewards, police etc to move between the fans and reduce the risk of trouble.

Some seats were lost by the inclusion of advertising stands.

When the stadium was in Olympic mode, the capacity was supposed to be 80,000. That dropped to 63,000 for the Champions League final.

Q. How did fans without tickets get in?
The great, traditional blag. There were by all accounts a pile of forged tickets doing the rounds.

High-definition scanners and perforating machines these days make forgeries easy to produce, which is why at the World Cup in Germany last year all tickets had microchips embedded in them that were read at the turnstiles.

No chip, no entry was the theory.

The Champions League tickets were less sophisticated, but still had holograms, barcodes and watermarks on them: in theory enough to put the forgers off.

But in the melee of getting into a football match, that counts for little. Police officers controlling crowds make isolated decisions based on public safety first and foremost.

There were no turnstiles in Athens, and when crushes developed at the entry points, fans were waved through with the most cursory of checks. Some said their tickets weren't checked at all.

Q. What security measures were in place?
Athens police say there were 7,500 officers on duty. They had support from the British and Italian police forces who had spotters monitoring the fans.

Around the stadiums, police in riot gear were much in evidence, assisting the stewards with ticket checks and in ushering the crowds in through the 'funnels' they created with lines of police vans etc.

There was CCTV covering the main access points.

Q. Were they adequate?
7,500 officers is a lot. Far more, for example, than the number on duty for the FA Cup final last week.

So that should have been enough. What went fundamentally wrong is the system in place for ticket checks just was not effective.

As soon as that broke down, the problems began. Stewards inside the stadium could not or would not do much about the problem of fans with forgeries sitting in the seats of genuinely ticketed fans, who in turn took someone else's seat.

In the end the gangways and access areas filled up with displaced fans, so Uefa took the decision to close the stadium, leaving fans with genuine tickets locked out - and understandably furious.

Q. What about the suitability of the stadium?
It is a cracking stadium for athletics, big enough for major football matches, albeit with the drawback of the running track between the fans and the action.

The transport system coped well with large numbers of spectators at the Olympics and Athens is a lively, bustling city well used to holding major events, with an experienced police force, so no real issues there.

Q. Did police react in the right way?
Probably. No-one seems to have been seriously hurt, and that's their main objective.

That is not to say it could not have been handled better, for the reasons above. As soon as the ticket checking process started to fail, the outcome was inevitable.

Q. Are the fans culpable?
Any fair analysis will have to conclude some responsibility rests with the fans who knowingly bought forged tickets, and ticket-less fans who tried to rush gates, or just create an incident, knowing in the end, as happens every time, not everyone's ticket will be checked.

It is dishonest and they're cheating their own mates.

Q. Who is ultimately responsible?
It is Uefa's competition. It decides where the finals are played, co-ordinates the ticketing arrangements and liaises with the hosts over how to make the game work at all levels.

It is Uefa's property to protect and it has been asked to provide answers for why things went wrong.

Uefa says it was the behaviour of the Liverpool fans that exacerbated the problem, but of course the reality is there were a combination of factors responsible.

*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog

Soccer: BBC pundits on Athens final

Liverpool lost to AC Milan in the Champions League final because they did not take advantage of the spells during the match when they were on top.

If Javier Mascherano had not been substituted he would have been the first Liverpool player out at Kaka putting him under pressure, as he did all night

When you dominate possession like Liverpool did in the first half and get in situations where you put crosses in, or take shots from distance, you have to make it count.

But Liverpool did not have enough quality in attack to do that.

That is because the one thing that manager Rafa Benitez has failed to do in his three years in charge at Anfield is to bring in some proven firepower up front.

Milan had the luck when they needed it with the first goal - when Andrea Pirlo's shot deflected in off Pippo Inzaghi - and they had a bit of luck with the second goal too.

If Javier Mascherano had not been substituted he would have been the first Liverpool player out at Kaka putting him under pressure in the build-up, as he did all night.

But he was not under pressure and, for the first time in the match, that allowed Kaka to slip a little ball in behind the back four for Inzaghi to add a second. It was a great run and finish by the striker too.

When it did come, the Liverpool goal was too late.

They never really pressurised Milan in the closing stages and the Italians were always going to be capable of running down the clock.

In the end you just have to say 'well done' to Milan.

They maybe should not have been let into Europe because of the match-fixing scandal in Italy.

But they have been allowed in the competition and they have reached the final on merit.

Carlo Ancelotti's side gave us some wonderful performances - in the quarter-final away at Bayern Munich and in both legs of the semi-final against Manchester United - and here they are as winners.

Even as a Liverpool fan you have to find it somewhere in your heart to accept they have won the Champions League and that is no mean feat.

Graham Taylor Former England manager and Five Live summariser

For most of the game the team in red, Liverpool, were in charge.

But what they didn't do was create one chance inside Milan's area, other than the goal - which was right at the death.

That was a big a failing for them and they could have done a lot more.

To change that, from a personal point of view, I would have brought Peter Crouch on earlier than the 78th minute.

The changes that Rafa Benitez made were fine but I would have liked to have seen them happen 10 minutes earlier, and for Steven Gerrard to have dropped back into midfield then.

---

Jan Molby and Graham Taylor were speaking on BBC Radio Five Live.

Soccer: Liverpool got everything right but their selection

Rafa Benitez found the perfect formation to stifle Milan, but he lacked the players to win.

Paul Doyle

May 23, 2007 9:39 PM

Greece has always been a dangerous place to forget what made you great. Thales the Milesian, for example, was the country's first ever philosopher and found fame by positing that everything is made of water. Oh how he must have been kicking himself in 546BC when, in the middle of a gymnastics contest, he dropped dead of dehydration. Then there was Chrysippus, a celebrated Stoic - who laughed himself to death.

It's tempting but wrong to add Rafa Benitez to the list. His success at Liverpool has been based above all on defence, yet tonight he adopted a vigorous attacking formation. Liverpool's aggression was evident from the very first minute, when four raiders in Red romped into the Milan box, only for their ardour to droop when Steven Gerrard overhit his cross to Jermaine Pennant, who had fizzed in free at the back post. But the intent was clear. And correct.

Manifestly, attack is the best form of defence against this Milan side - by pressing high up the pitch, Liverpool cut off the supply not just to Kaka and Clarence Seedorf but also to Andrea Pirlo, the principal conduit from back to front. Of course, Benitez has always known this - far from abandoning his previous beliefs, tonight he in fact reverted to the strategy he'd begun with in Istanbul - and it worked insofar as it meant that Liverpool lorded it over their opponents in the first half. The only reason their tactics didn't bring triumph is that, while the shape and idea were sound, the personnel were inadequate.

If Jermaine Pennant and Bolo Zenden were postmen in your district, you'd wake up every morning to find parcels in your shrubbery and letters strewn all over your lawn: that's how bad their delivery is. Both had ample opportunity in the first half to exploit Milan's narrowness, but both failed miserably to turn time and space into tangible success, their crosses either too wild or too feeble.

Zenden toddled about in particularly ineffective fashion, as he did against Chelsea in the semi-finals and, indeed, for most of his strange career at the top level. Harry Kewell may have been a shock inclusion two years ago when he was thrust into the starting line-up after almost six months out through a mysterious injury, but he should have started tonight. Not 'in the hole' behind the lone striker, which is where he was deployed in 2005 and where Gerrard thrived tonight, but on the wing in place of Zenden. Because when he's at his best, Kewell is faster, more precise and more menacing than Zenden has ever been or will ever be. If he was close enough to his best to be on the bench, then he should have been in the first XI. If not, he shouldn't have been on the bench.

If those options sound embarrassingly limited, then it's because Benitez has not bought better ones.

Speaking of which: Zenden wasn't the only defective Dutchman on the pitch. Dirk Kuyt is simply not a Champions League class player, nor an improvement on the people he replaced. He may be more disciplined than Milan Baros - a trait that will always endear him to a technocrat like Benitez - but his touch and finishing is equally shoddy, and he doesn't have the pace of Djibril Cissé. Peter Crouch has failings too, but he would have been harder for Milan to handle, notably from set-pieces, at which Milan's vulnerability had previously been exposed in this competition by Celtic's Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Bayern Munich's Daniel van Buyten. And Crouch is more than just an aerial nuisance, of course, he's also deft of touch. He would have been a far more reliable foil for the game Gerrard.

Both Kewell and Crouch were eventually introduced, but at a time when Milan had already stolen a lead and could therefore sit back, squeezing the space that had hitherto existed and springing forward in speedy spurts. Liverpool, meanwhile, became rudderless in their desperation and were forced to sacrifice Javier Mascherano - the holding player they'd missed so glaringly two years ago until Dietmar Hamann's belated entry; that gave Kaka the room he'd previously been denied, and he duly released Inzaghi for the game's killer goal.

Kuyt's 88th-minute goal, his first in the tournament, was more than mere testament to Liverpool's wonderful fighting spirit - it was also an ironic way of signalling their shortcomings. With the backing of Liverpool's new American owners, Benitez will have more money than ever before at his disposal: but he must spend the big bucks better than he has spent the relatively small ones so far. He is brilliant at shaping a team. Now he must prove he can staff one.

Guardian Unlimited

*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog

Soccer: Ticketing policy infuriates fans

Andrew Culf

There is genuine anger on the streets of Athens about the distribution of Champions League tickets.

Andrew Culf

May 23, 2007 10:45 AM

Two contrasting snapshots of Athens during the countdown to the Champions League final. In Syntagma Square, in the centre of the city, hundreds of Liverpool fans, gathered on a flight of steps, a wall of red and yellow replica kits, belting out their traditional Kop repertoire. Across a chaotically traffic-choked road in the hushed environs of one of Athens' five-star hotels, besuited Uefa bigwigs and honoured guests checked in, clutching Champions League goodie bags.

The phenomenon is nothing new - it was a feature of last summer's World Cup in Germany, where real fans rubbed shoulders with sponsors' clients on corporate jollies. But fans are getting increasingly wise to football's big divide and they are not remaining silent about it. The Football Supporters' Federation has struck a raw nerve with its "Tickets for fans - not sponsors" campaign, and they have been busy handing out their stickers in Athens.

As supporters hunted down exorbitantly priced black market tickets, many expressed understanding of the need for some tickets for sponsors and officials - but there was also genuine anger about Uefa's ticket allocation, plus, for this match, concern that Liverpool had let down regular season ticket holders by the way they had distributed the club's 17,000 tickets, 6,000 of which were set aside for white-collar supporters.

The Olympic Stadium has a capacity of 63,800 for tonight's match - but only 34,000 tickets go to supporters of Liverpool and Milan. Another 9,000 were available to all supporters (and, presumably touts too) in an internet ballot held in February.

The fans I met in the square yesterday were united in their condemnation of Uefa's policy. Graham Craig, 40, of Anfield, said: "It is a commercial issue, rather than purely about football. Not enough grassroots fans are receiving tickets." Gary Bown, 38, of Leicester, and his friend Paul Bolton, 35, were hoping that tickets ordered through a London website agency at an eyewatering £675 each, would arrive in time - and had heard of someone selling 50 corporate tickets at €1,500 each.

Graeme McKean, 35, of Falkirk, told how he could afford €300 for a ticket, but had been offered one for €4,200. Season ticket holder Malcolm Hunter, 29, had flown in from his new home in Melbourne and, despite having the necessary fan credits, was ticketless. "Absolutely scandalous" was his simple verdict.

Until these problems are addressed, it is inevitable touts will continue to demand up to €3,000 for tickets. The question is, how can supporters shame the authorities into putting the ordinary fan - and not corporate sponsors - first?

Guardian Unlimited

*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog