Football: Champions League final report must be 'turning point' for fans, says Henderson

LONDON – Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson said an independent review of the chaos before the 2022 Champions League final in Paris must be a “turning point” in the way fans are treated.

The final, which

Real Madrid won 1-0 on May 28,

was delayed by 36 minutes after thousands of Liverpool supporters were unable to get into the Stade de France.

French police were filmed using tear gas on fans, including women and children.

Uefa has apologised to Liverpool for initially blaming the Merseyside club’s fans for the mayhem following the release of the review on Monday, which found European football’s governing body should bear “primary responsibility for failures which almost led to disaster”.

French police and authorities were also criticised for a lack of planning and a heavy-handed response to fans, based on incorrect assumptions that fans posed a threat to public order.

“The Paris report needs to be a turning point for the treatment of football fans,” Henderson tweeted on Tuesday. “No one should have their safety jeopardised by inadequate organisation. The sooner action is taken, the better.”

One of the report’s key findings was that the policing model was influenced by a view of Liverpool based on the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, which caused the death of 97 fans.

After decades of fighting for justice, British police chiefs apologised to the families of the victims only in January, recognising that “police failures were the main cause of the tragedy”.

For many Liverpool fans, the scenes in Paris

provoked traumatic flashbacks

of what happened at Hillsborough.

Liverpool chief executive officer Billy Hogan said the panel’s findings marked the “beginning” of the changes needed from authorities.

“This is where the hard work really needs to start now,” he told the club’s website.

“The fact that it wasn’t (a) disaster is really down to the behaviour of our supporters around the match itself... That’s the reason why it was a near miss and why it wasn’t an actual disaster.”

In a club statement on Tuesday, the Reds also said: “We call on Uefa and others at the top of the football regulation pyramid to come together and take positive and transparent action to ensure there are no more near misses.

“As a football club with proud history in Europe, we call on Uefa to do the right thing and implement the 21 recommendations to ensure the safety of all football supporters attending any future Uefa football match.” REUTERS, AFP