PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
UEFA Champions League Final 2022: Independent Review Findings - 28 February 2023 (Commons/Westminster Hall)

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the findings of the independent review report on the UEFA Champions League Final 2022.

It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Harris. I declare that I am a proud member of the Spirit of Shankly football union.

I want to start by paying tribute to the magnificent efforts of the Liverpool supporters who saved lives through their actions in Paris. They also fought for the truth regarding the events that took place there and refused to be beaten by the lies and smears of UEFA and the French Government, which were straight from the Hillsborough playbook. We need to remember that this could have happened to any set of fans in Europe.

“Due to the late arrival of fans, the match has been delayed.” That was the message on a screen in Stade de France that made so many of us feel physically ill when we saw it. Lies were once again relayed to a watching world after so many of us had just experienced our worst day in football since Hillsborough, all because of the disgraceful organisation by UEFA and the French authorities. We knew immediately that another cover-up was in motion. After all, we had been here before.

I was sent this by Nick Braley, a Hillsborough survivor:

“As a Hillsborough survivor, I naively expected the policing to be focused on safety, especially given Paris’s history of terrorist attacks, including one at the Stade de France just a few years ago. Instead, I was met with complete disorganisation, aggressive and violent policing which resulted in my being kettled and ultimately bounced along a line of riot shields of Parisian police officers. Thirty-three years ago, I escaped a life-threatening crush at Hillsborough and now I faced a situation where one slip or trip and I could have again witnessed deaths at a football match. These things happen. People make mistakes and they need to learn from them, only here, again, I had to observe the police and authorities invent a pack of lies as they tried to pass the blame onto innocent people rather than take responsibility for their own failings. Thirty-three years ago, the police did all they could to fabricate a false narrative and here we are with the French authorities doing exactly the same. Please don’t let them do this, make them take responsibility and please ensure that lessons are learned for the safety of all future sporting fans.”

That is why this report matters so much to so many people.

Eight months since it was commissioned by the general secretary of UEFA, the report into what really happened at the UEFA champions league final in Paris on 28 May has finally been published. To my eternal relief and to the relief of thousands of Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters who experienced the horror that evening, it is a world away from the UEFA-led cover-up that we saw on the evening of 28 May. The report places the blame correctly and firmly at the doorstep of those responsible for the game, which could have led to countless lives being lost. The report is clear: the fans bear no culpability. The investigation panel concludes that the “overarching organisational failures” by UEFA and the French authorities were at the root of what went so terribly wrong that evening.

The hon. Gentleman has a love for the beautiful game and a love for Liverpool, and I commend him for that. Even though I am not a Liverpool supporter, I very much enjoy that. Does he not agree that the fact that there was no loss of life was only by the grace of God and that this should not lead to UEFA being excused from making amends to those fans whose experience was traumatic and for whom the beauty of watching the beautiful game has been forever tainted by fear and anxiety? Will he further agree that a mea culpa—a simple apology—will not be acceptable to any of the fans, the hon. Gentleman or me?

I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman.

The report exonerates Liverpool supporters of any blame or responsibility. In fact, it backs up the statements made by so many supporters, including myself, when I stated that if it were not for the efforts and understanding of the Liverpool supporters that night, people would have died because of the failings of UEFA and the French authorities. I thank the chair of the panel, Dr Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, and the members of the panel: Mr Ronan Evain, Ms Amanda Jacks, Mr Frank Paauw, Mr Daniel Ribeiro, Mr Kenny Scott, Mr Luís Silva, Professor Clifford Stott and Mr Pete Weatherby.

My hon. Friend is bearing powerful witness to those events and what has subsequently happened. Does he agree—I am sure he will—that UEFA and the French authorities now need to be held accountable for their failures to properly manage that event, and for all the ensuing risks that he so powerfully described?

I agree 100% with my right hon. Friend, unsurprisingly.

I thank the panel for their diligence and tenacity in seeking the truth and laying the foundation for justice. Their work is beyond reproach, and they collectively deserve the thanks of every single football supporter in Europe, because, when implemented, their recommendations will make the European game safer for all. The importance of supporters leading the fight for the truth to be laid bare in the report is incalculable, but this was a truly collective effort.

I place on record my thanks to Liverpool football club and Professor Phil Scraton for pulling together witness statements to inform the panel and for their ceaseless support. Thanks must also go to the many journalists across the world who have done so much to aid the quest for truth. So many have contributed, but I personally thank David Conn, Dan Austin and Rob Draper in the UK and Pierre Etienne Minonzio from L’Equipe. What a difference it made to have excellent journalists who sought to find the truth—unlike in 1989, when the gutter press printed lies and smears.

The panel report pinpointed many organisational failures, but I will reflect on some of the most damning. The UEFA model for organising was defective, in that there was

“an absence of overall control or oversight of safety and security.”

That is an astounding failure, for which those responsible must be held accountable. The French policing operational strategy was based on the lies and smears of the Hillsborough disaster. It is inexcusable for a major police force to base its operational strategy for policing a huge global event—including the use of tear gas and pepper spray on innocent supporters and its failure to protect supporters from local gangs—on old smears and lies. To date, there has been no apology or acknowledgment of its errors. Without that, how can anyone have confidence in the ability of Paris to safely hold a global sporting event again?

UEFA presented to the French Senate inquiry a completely misleading view of what it knew of safety problems at previous events at Stade de France. That was unacceptable. UEFA and the authorities also sought to deflect responsibility; the report highlights that

“The public response of UEFA in the aftermath of the problems on the night and in its subsequent evidence to the Senate was striking in its orientation to protect itself.”

UEFA’s initial response to the report said that it was committed to learning from the events, as my hon. Friend has quite rightly said, and co-operating closely with supporters groups, among others. Some parts of the report spoke about the impact on disabled people of UEFA’s failings at last year’s final. One of the recommendations said that there should be,

“fuller and more proactive engagement with disabled supporter organisations and the respective clubs to determine needs and requirements”.

Does my hon. Friend agree that UEFA must come through on that recommendation and should regularly report on its progress in that area?

Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend and I will touch on that point in a minute, because we have the fantastic Ted Morris from the Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association in the room.

The report states:

“It was a serious error for UEFA to assume it could avoid accountability for a foreseeable near disaster at its flagship event”.

That statement is utterly damning. Now that we have the report, what happens next? Two of the foremost campaigners for the truth about Paris are Joe Blott, the chair of the Spirit of Shankly and the Liverpool Supporters Board, and Ted Morris, from the Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association. They are clear about what should happen next. I am proud to have Ted Morris sitting in the room with us. Joe Blott said:

“UEFA and all authorities must now accept all 21 recommendations cited in the report and act upon them. They must apologise for the lies and smears they used to shift responsibility from themselves to innocent fans and they must formally retract the untrue statements made about supporters. UEFA must ensure that this never happens again and do everything in their power to enable all supporters to attend football matches secure in the knowledge that their safety is paramount and will not be compromised.”

Does my hon. Friend agree that what is most worrying about these events is that they were entirely foreseeable, given what had happened at European football matches involving numbers of different sets of fans in recent years? Does he worry, as I do, that the lessons will not be learned as speedily as we want them to be, precisely because attention was not paid to the near misses and evidence that something like this could take place until it was too late?

I thank my hon. Friend for that point, which is painted clearly in the report. I wholeheartedly agree with everything she just said.

Ted Morris says:

“We do not seek recrimination or blame; that is for others to address. We do, though, ask UEFA to take on board the panel recommendations and make the necessary adjustments to allow disabled supporters to follow their chosen team in Europe, without having to overcome so much prejudice and navigate to so many hurdles.”

I want to finish by asking the Football Association, which abandoned Liverpool supporters in 1989, not to back the vested interests of UEFA, but instead to back the interests of supporters. As our representative at UEFA, in 2023 the FA must save the game and its supporters. We need the FA to provide leadership and show courage to ensure that our demands regarding Paris are met in the halls of UEFA. The FA must heed the findings of the report and act upon them, for the sake of English football and its supporters.

I urge the Government to keep the political pressure on President Macron and Aleksander Čeferin of UEFA to ensure a full apology is made and that the report’s recommendations are met. The Government have a duty to Liverpool supporters and to all football supporters in the UK to ensure that this never happens again. Nothing can erase the dreadful events of that night in Paris. We know of at least two Hillsborough survivors who have taken their own lives since Paris, with thousands of others traumatised. The impact of the actions of UEFA and the French authorities cannot be overestimated, but we must hope that lessons have finally been learned, and that no supporter will ever have to go through what we did. That would be a fitting legacy for the many who suffered that night in Paris.

I thank the Minister for what he has just said. Through him, I also thank all UK Government officials and Ministers who made themselves available on the day to deal with the difficult situation. I am full of admiration for our diplomats and UK Government officials, who responded so quickly. On that point, will the Minister explain the link between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Foreign Office? European football competitions happen all the time, and our ambassadors and diplomatic teams need to be aware of that and offer support to UK sports fans when they travel to Europe.

I thank the Minister for his response to far. I impress on him the importance, whoever ends up in that final—I hope it is Liverpool—of fans having a voice in the shape of that final and proper engagement. They are the ones who go to matches and have the experience, and they do not get listened to enough. We did not get listened to in Paris, and our voices are often not heard, as my hon. Friend the Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) mentioned. It is important that the Government commit to ensuring that, whoever is in that final, the supporters will be sat down at the organisational table and listened to.