UEFA accused of putting West Ham fans’ lives at risk by not responding to ‘obvious threat’

UEFA has been accused of endangering the lives of West Ham fans by presiding over a ‘major security and safety failure’ during the Europa Conference League semi-final by one of the authors of the independent report on the disturbances during last year’s Champions League final.

In a strongly worded interview with Mail sports Professor Clifford Stott claimed that UEFA failed to implement the Independent Review Panel’s 21 recommendations after Liverpool fans were caught up in a series of horrific infatuations that drove out the Stade de France. He also criticized UEFA for not responding to the ‘obvious threat’ AZ Alkmaar Ultras posed to traveling fans ahead of the match.

UEFA plans to open an investigation into the violent scenes that marred West Ham’s 1-0 win, and has already requested CCTV footage from AZ Alkmaar, but Stott believes the European governing body is also responsible for failing to ensure protection from visiting fans. by stewards and police.

The professor of social psychology at Keele University was one of nine members of the independent judging panel that was set up following last May’s Champions League final. Paris.

“This is another major security and safety mistake at a major UEFA event, and UEFA is ultimately responsible,” said Stott Mail sports. “The attacks from the AZ Ultras were nothing short of horrific and could easily have resulted in fans being seriously injured or even killed.

As we concluded in our report on the Champions League final, UEFA has “primary responsibility” as it is their event and they should have responded to what was a clear threat to public order. As with Paris 2022, this was a clear failure of interoperability. UEFA promised to follow our 21 recommendations after the report was published, but the evidence suggests that this is not the case.’

Stott believes the threat to West Ham fans became increasingly apparent on Thursday afternoon and UEFA failed to respond.

“There was a lot of evidence on social media all afternoon that Alkmaar fans were behaving aggressively,” he said. ‘There was a clear threat, but it did not lead to changes in the field.

“As soon as the threat arose, responsibility for the security of the stadium should have been transferred from AZ Alkmaar to the police, but that did not happen. The video evidence shows the Ultras tearing down the fencing to attack the West Ham fans and players’ families, with only a handful of stewards and no police present.

“UEFA seem to have done nothing last night to keep West Ham fans safe, so how can we trust them to take the right steps ahead of the final in Prague or the Champions League final in Istanbul?”

Stott also criticized UEFA for not contacting the independent review panel since their scathing report was published in February.

“We have not had any communication with UEFA since our report was published,” he said. “No attempt was made to leverage our combined expertise or ask how our recommendations could be put into practice.”

AZ Alkmaar apologized to West Ham and their fans yesterday, but UEFA is awaiting reports from match officials and delegates before commenting.