UEFA blames fans for ticket farce

May 24 2007

A UEFA official today blamed ticket-less Liverpool fans for the nightmare scenes outside the Champions League final last night.

Spokesman William Gaillard said: “It is the behaviour of Liverpool fans that was, in the end, responsible for the problems that took place before the game, during and after the game.

“Trying to go over the barriers to get into the stadium without tickets, for example, is not behaviour we can condone.

“It is very easy from the outside to say this is not a suitable stadium. At the same time, the Milan supporters did not face at all the same problems because they did not behave in the same way.

“With the kind of pushing that was going on yesterday, the attempts to jump over barriers - imagine if we had turnstiles, we would have had a tragedy.

“I am very sorry for what happened to fans who had regular tickets. But at the same time, there is a collective responsibility in terms of behaviour.

“The bulk were obviously extremely honest people who got their tickets in the right way and observed the rules.

“Unfortunately, because a minority did not, they found themselves in a very uncomfortable position.”