Gaillard figures don’t add up

May 30 2007 Red Watch by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

UEFA has had its fair share of pompous buffoons over the years, but William Gaillard, their current Head of Communications, is clearly at the head of the pack.

This is the man who declared Liverpool fans lucky to be allocated 17,000 tickets in a stadium that held 70,000 and who has since castigated us for causing the problems experienced at the ground which were a predictable outcome from this supercilious attitude.

As with all articles of this type, of course I have to admit that there is really no excuse for fans attempting to get into the ground with no ticket, or with a known forgery.

Liverpool fans above all should know the dangers involved in overcrowding, and the possibility of depriving a fellow supporter with a genuine ticket of their chance to watch the game should be enough to deter anyone from a city which prides itself on its communal identity.

Yet it’s hard to view this as criminal activity derived from pure self-interest; what common thief would travel nearly 2,000 miles and spend over £500 to ‘steal’ a ticket worth £57?

While there will always be a few who are willing to go to these lengths just for the sheer bravado of it, there aren’t 15,000 of them.

The vast majority are driven by the desire to support their team, the passion at the very heart of the game, one which UEFA should prize and do everything in its power to accommodate.

Just because fans shouldn’t attempt to gain access with no or forged tickets, this doesn’t absolve those organising these events from their duty to ensure that it is administered as fairly and safely as possible, and that every precaution is taken to minimise the chance of illegitimate behaviour at the game.

After all, if your bank left money lying around their branch, you wouldn’t condone anyone who took it but you’d also expect the manager to have taken steps to prevent it happening wouldn’t you?

Before the game, UEFA could not have done a better job of creating the conditions for chaos: restricting supply to less than 50% of demand; designing tickets that could facilitate the production of passable forgeries with a ZX Spectrum and a John Bull Printing Press; and flooding the corporate hospitality sector with tickets which might as well have had ‘destined for the black market’ printed on their face.

At the ground, they collaborated with the Greek authorities to provide a succession of security cordons which were inappropriate, ineffective and dangerous.

In short, they blew it.

Charged with the well-being of the European game, UEFA is populated by politicos and bureaucrats who judge their own success by the amount of money they make from corporate sponsors and the votes they garner from member countries rather than the extent to which the true life-blood of the game, the fans, are permitted to enjoy their sport in comfort and safety.

Why else would they choose to stage their showpiece event in Istanbul in 2005, at a stadium situated some 25 miles out of the city with no public transport to speak of?

Why else choose an Athens stadium with inadequate security, designed for an Olympic event with a totally different attendance demographic?

Why else would they seek to blame their own customers for their own failings?

In most other walks of life, such corporate failure would bring retribution in the form of enforced resignations; don’t hold your breath waiting for similar reaction from UEFA.