Millea: It was a miracle Athens was not a disaster

May 30 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

Peter Millea, chairman of Liverpool council's Ground Safety Advisory Group, writes a report of his experience

DEAR FSF,

I was one of the 2,000 or so genuine Liverpool supporters who was denied access at the start of the Champions' League Final on May 23.

I travel all over Europe, unlike the majority of those who wanted to go to the final, and had not missed a single minute of any of Liverpool's matches in Europe this season.

I arrived at the stadium very early. On arrival with four others, including a 12-year-old lad, we were met with a riot squad preventing access to the first turnstile.

Everyone who was there had tickets to try to gain admission. The thugs who masqueraded as police officers only allowed people through one at a time.

When we all managed to get through, after a riot shield was smashed against me, and one of my friends kicked to the ground, and the 12-year-old in tears, we all proceeded to the gates, where our tickets were scanned.

We did not envisage how far the next set of turnstiles were from this entrance. It must have been more than half a mile. We were carrying one of our mates, who had been kicked to the ground by the police.

It was seven minutes before kick-off time that we got to a police barricade, with armed and unarmed police and a row of police wagons, bumper to bumper to prevent access. The police told us to go away, the ground is full. People were quite naturally upset. When some tried to go up a flight of steps, the police reacted with batons and pepper gas. People were in tears as a result.

My 12-year-old friend was in tears and begged his dad to take him back to the hotel as he just wanted to get away.

However, 10 minutes into the match, one of the police with riot gear took pity on my mate and his son, and let them through.

I was still outside with two other mates, and the crowds were being pushed downstairs if they tried to get up them, and I feared for lives, as a witness at Hillsborough. Then there was a change of personnel on the barricade, and one police officer was particularly arrogant, telling me to go to "entrance".

When I asked which entrance, he pointed to the one on the other side of the barricade. During this time, three alleged AC Milan fans came to our "barricade" and were allowed in.

Why were AC Milan fans arriving through the area designated for Liverpool fans?

As more and more Liverpool fans were either driven away or went voluntarily, my two mates and I hung around. I was determined not to give up, and with minutes to go before the first half ended, I spotted a gap between two police wagons. We casually walked past a group of armed police to the gate we should have been at more than an hour before.

At the gate, my bag was searched and no-one was stopping us from getting in, so we began to wonder about this "ground full" message.

We went into the first gate we could see and, at that moment, AC Milan scored, and a large number of people started to leave. It soon became apparent that they had to do so to go to the toilet or to get refreshments, as there were none inside. When we got inside, there were people standing right to the front of the block. I suggested we left and looked downstairs. This, too, was full and no spare seats anywhere. We ended up on the back wall standing behind some people who were on the back row.

There was a huge concrete beam in front of us, and we could only see either goal end, and nothing in between. This is where we remained for the rest of the match.

The result was somehow immaterial. I had almost been denied entry to a game I was so looking forward to. I felt anger towards UEFA and the police, but it started to dawn on me that those who sneaked in without a ticket or who had forged tickets were just as culpable for this fiasco, and had Liverpool supporters generally not conducted themselves in such a well-behaved and remarkably restrained manner, there might well have been a disaster on the cards. In all, it was a miracle that there wasn't.

I hope that this will be conveyed to UEFA.

PETER MILLEA

Peter Millea has asked the following questions in his report to the FSF >>>