Your stories, your evidence from Athens

[Guest Snorky]

FSF

 

FSF to Collate Champions League Evidence Dossier

Thursday 24th May 2007

 

The Football Supporters' Federation (FSF) is collating a dossier of supporters' experiences at the Champions League final in Athens in an effort to ensure that the voice of fans is heard and to learn the lessons for future finals.

 

The FSF, who provided a ?Fans' Embassy? advice and information service for Liverpool supporters attending the game, has rejected the conclusions of UEFA spokesperson William Gaillard. Gaillard blamed the behaviour of Liverpool fans for the problems at the stadium, which included the use of batons and tear gas by police, and numbers of fans with genuine tickets being denied access to the stadium.

 

Kevin Miles, International Co-ordinator for the FSF said:

 

?Blaming Liverpool fans' behaviour is not only a premature sweeping generalisation, it's also well wide of the mark.

 

"The issue of forged tickets was a significant contributory factor, but it was one identified well in advance and it should have been possible to have dealt with it. We would condem anyone who produces forged tickets, but it's impossible to judge whether anyone in possession of one has bought it in good faith or not.

 

?A well-organised admission system prevents entry with a forgery - look at the World Cup in Germany; but what use are holograms and bar codes on genuine tickets if these aren't checked on entry?

 

?Why was a game of this importance held in a stadium without turnstiles? The authorities in Athens had no way of measuring how many people had entered the stadium at any stage; this led to dangerous over-crowding inside, and fans with genuine tickets being locked out.

 

?Of course, the pressure on Liverpool fans to buy tickets on the black market in the first place was exacerbated by the allocation system which gives so many tickets to sponsors and the like.?

 

Many Liverpool fans faced rough treatment at the hands of the Greek police, including children affected by that least discriminating of police measures, tear gas. Problems involving inadequate stewarding, flight delays and cancellations were also reported to the FSF's fans' embassy.

 

The FSF is appealing to fans to come forward with their own first-hand witness testimony to build up a comprehensive picture of events in Athens in the form of a dossier which will be presented to UEFA and governmental authorities in an attempt to influence big match arrangements in the future.

 

All supporters are asked to email the FSF athens2007@fsf.org.uk with details of their experiences in Athens.

 

I've emailed mine, please at least this is something/somewhere were our voices will be heard.

Edited May 25, 2007 by Nathan Explosion

[R A Softlad]

Emailed them yesterday re checks. At least 40-50% of the lads on our flight had no ticket or fake tickets they should have been turned back at the second check (of nine)...

[Guest Snorky]

Please don't put stories in this thread, but let us know if you have emailed them.

 

Ta

[Paul B]

Juse e-mailed my experiences to them.

[Gunga Din]

i'll stick mine togethr tomorrow, i'm too knackered to do it now

[fyds]

Thanks to Jon Shar giving me the heads up on this - I've emailed mine too. Thank god UEFA don't own a brewery all we'd all be covered in piss.

[ricflairandy]

The most trouble i had was with some d****ead f***ing liverpool steward who decided hed have a right laufgt and trying to rip up my genuine ticket on me for his own enjoyment. w*****. I went over to ask him where i should go, he said gis a look at your ticket first incase its fake. I told him it wasnt as it was from lfc, he said he wanted a look anywa so i got it out and he tried to rip it up on me.

[Tosh]

This is from an article in post #91 of the Bascombe thread, below. So hopefully, with the club (I wonder if Milan had similar issues) and FSF etc weighing in.....

 

"Meanwhile, Parry hopes Uefa make positive strides in assessing and reacting to the crowd chaos at the Champions League final in Athens.

 

Thousands of Liverpool fans failed to get into the ground, despite having tickets, and riot police used tear gas and batons outside the Olympic Stadium to quell disturbances as supporters were turned away.

 

Uefa spokesman William Gaillard has suggested future finals could be rotated around stadiums with a capacity of at least 70,000 and Parry would back such a plan.

 

"It has got to be a good idea to stage finals in stadiums that are up to the task," said Parry.

 

There was real breakdown in procedures by any analysis

 

Rick Parry

 

"To have a stadium with no counting systems and no turnstiles in this day and age is simply unforgivable for any standard of game, let alone a major final.

 

"We produced a report for Uefa the week before predicting, sadly, all of the things that actually did go wrong.

 

"We told Uefa our intelligence suggested there were 5,000 forged tickets in existence.

 

"They knew and we knew that thousands would travel without tickets and stressed the need for a proper check at the outer cordon.

 

"We don't condone the behaviour of Liverpool fans who charged gates, who stole tickets or knowingly had forgeries but, at the same time, we are hugely concerned that many innocent fans with valid tickets did not get in.

 

"There was real breakdown in procedures by any analysis and the checks at the outer cordon clearly didn't work.

 

"Short of having 40,000 tickets you are always going to have disappointed people.

 

"But 17,000 was nowhere near enough. We have seen the numbers in Dortmund for the Uefa Cup final in 2001 and Istanbul for the Champions League final two years ago and it was clear there was going to be the same or even a greater demand in Athens."

[Sir Tokyo Sexwale]

the League 2 play=off final btw Bristol Rovers & Shrewsbury got 61,589.

 

League 1 - Yeovil & Blackpool 59,313

 

 

WE got 17,000 for the largest game in World Football