The Buck Stops with UEFA.

Posted by Jo S on May 28, 2007, 05:32:35 pm

Before I begin can I point out that I am more than aware of the events involving the scum element that travelled to Athens. I would not even dignify their presence as part of our fanbase. I believe the majority are arrogant scum who do not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as fans. I am also well aware of the other mitigating factors, including our own club & the Greek Police.

Please don’t bang on about the above if you choose to respond to this thread. I want to talk about UEFA there are plenty of other threads discussing the other issues.

However there is one point I would like to make before I come on to UEFA and that is to those fans who have protested that LFC should have been quicker in announcing the allocation of tickets. The fans who say they booked for Athens believing they would get a ticket because they had been to all home games need to wake up. Anyone on the ball knew that you were never going be guaranteed a ticket, there was plenty of discussion on here long before we made the final.

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=161756.msg2764461#msg2764461

Now to UEFA……

From start to finish they have been negligent in the mess that was Athens. We all know about the measly allocation given to us 17000 is way too little. So the first of their many errors.

The wrong stadium

The stadium was not a football stadium, the capacity was too low & the design invited chaos.

Whatever happened with regard to the scum that travelled to Athens 90% of the fallout could have been avoided had UEFA done its job.
According to Rick Parry intelligence advising UEFA that upto 5000 fans would be travelling to Athens with forged tickets was presented. In this time UEFA could have (although the security should have been in place already) increased security. How much revenue do there showpiece event attract?
They could have easily spent a million pounds organising extra perimeter fences and ensuring tickets were properly checked far from the ground. Look at Barcelona Away this season, thousand travelling without tickets but easily controlled at the ground due to adequate security measures.

How many people ever try to bunk in English grounds?

No matter how big the game…Chelsea Semis etc? Has there been mass bunking in? Would you even consider bunking in to a premiership ground? No.

The point of all this is that UEFA could have stopped those with forged tickets entering the ground. They could have rented turnstile and ensured a proper cordon was in place. They were more than aware of the kind of numbers that were likely to be travelling to Greece. Let’s face it they had a dress rehearsal two years earlier.
If the tickets had been put through a bar-coded turnstile similar to Camp Nou those with forgeries would have got nowhere near the ground least of all those without tickets.

Consider for a moment those who had travelled and tried to obtain tickets in Greece buoyed by the hopes that Greek locals may sell for less than the extortionate prices here. In this day of modern technology how long before word got around via pinging text messages that it was a piece of piss to get into the ground.

This in no way excuses what happened but how many fans who had decided to watch the match in a bar or on a screen somewhere were suddenly greeted with the temptation to try their luck? Think if you had travelled to Greece and you got a message to say you could walk into the ground easily? Words gets around like wildfire & this can only have exacerbated the situation. Had the message coming from the Olympic Stadium form the chancers & the scouts been one of “No, chance, Fort Knox” would as many people have tried their luck?

UEFA must be held responsible for this fiasco, yes there are other factors but ultimately they are to blame.

When I went to Rhodes last weekend, I didn’t get to Gatwick to be told my plane was full because they had let people on there with no tickets & no right to be there. I got on my plane as expected. And sat on my seat, organisation on a smaller scale perhaps but UEFA only had to do the job that organisers of large events do all the time.

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