UEFA’s Repeated Disorganization At Major Club Finals Raises Serious Concerns

At what point will tragedy strike at a major European club final? In the lead-up to and after the final of the Champions League between Manchester City and Inter Milan chaos over transport to and from the Ataturk Stadium and a lack of basic facilities prevailed. Water was confiscated and toilets were in short supply. Amid gridlock, some fans clambered over scrubland after their bus broke down, and others simply walked to the venue.

“The fan park was streaming with raw sewage,” said Manchester City Liam, who had to carry his father-in-law with mobility issues in the stands. “I wouldn’t have liked to have been a female trying to go to the toilet,” said Peter Campbell.

“One bus reversed and missed a father pushing his disabled son in a wheelchair by millimetres,” wrote Elaine Lingard of her post-match experience, when thousands of fans desperately searched for shuttle buses and taxis – at affordable prices – to return to the city center, often crisscrossing dangerous highways.

“There are 760 Premier League matches a season and I’ve never experienced anything like such disorganization,” said Liam. “You have 1 match a season to organize, stop treating us like cattle and do better.”

This scenario was all the more unacceptable and unforgivable for Uefa: they had staged the 2005 final between Liverpool and AC Milan – a thriller for the ages – at the same venue, this final had been rescheduled twice, and, above all, the 2022 final served as the ultimate warning with near-fatal crushes.

Last year’s showpiece match of the European club season provided a dramatic and unwanted sequel to the Euro 2020 final with scenes of crowd congestion, dangerous bottlenecks, a locked-down stadium and riot police trying to secure the concourse at the Liverpool end of the Stade de France. UEFA
EFA
delayed kickoff by 36 minutes “due to late arrival of fans”. Later, the European Confederation blamed the disorder on “fake tickets”. UEFA’s independent report commissioned established that event was almost a ‘mass fatality catastrophe’ for which UEFA were ‘primarily responsible’.

So why the indifference from Uefa? The governing body did implement 21 recommendations before the Istanbul final, but too often fans are treated like cattle, consumers who will slog their way at extortionate prices and pay up to €690 for a match ticket. It delights Uefa and its world of corporate totalitarianism – pay with the right credit card, drink the right branded soda inside the venues and their perimeters. Supporters are merely a herd to be milked. Ultimately, major soccer tournaments are really designed for corporate yield. And yet, paradoxically, that might go a long way into explaining why supporters are a mere afterthought for the European governing body.

Ticketing and merchandise at a final generate but a fraction of the revenues. Broadcast and sponsor income make the Champions League the world’s richest league with an annual revenue of €3.6 billion. It’s Uefa’s cash cow. In 2022, the Champions League final, together with the Super Cup, generated €24,6 million while media right and commercials rights brought in €2,6 billion and €444 million respectively, according to UEFA’s financial report.

Uefa’s top brass includes few soccer fans, who have an understanding of a matchday experience and care for the concerns of fans. Director of Competitions Giorgio Marchetti and secretary general Theodore Theodoridis have an affinity with the game, but the executive committee and most other directors remain an elite band. President Aleksander Ceferin’s official vehicle has a sticker denoting ‘001’.

In a recent interview with Dutch broadcaster NOS, Aleksander Ceferin criticized those fans that derailed matches with fan violence on the rise recently. The slick Slovenian strikes all the rights notes and presents himself as a force for good, combatting the evils in the game, but when asked by this reporter about the chaos in Istanbul, Ceferin refused to comment.

It’s telling that Uefa have not issued a statement whatsoever after the chaos in Istanbul. London will stage next year’s final at Wembley, the scene of total chaos and anarchy before England – Italy in 2021. If there was unprecedented public disorder, Uefa and authorities were not ready to stage the first England final since 1966. The Football Association-commissioned review led by Louise Casey found that a series of ‘near misses’ almost led to deaths on a day of ‘national shame’.

In the space of two years, Uefa has bungled three major finals, two with almost deadly consequences. Without proper organization, a tragedy is waiting to happen in the near future.