Leeds City Council has confirmed that it was involved in the decision to deploy the Leeds United open-top bus, during last night's promotion celebrations.
Photos and videos of the bus parked at Elland Road began circulating online before yesterday's match, with many people questioning why it was there if the team had requested no celebrations.
Leeds United were then compelled to issue a statement about its use, which saw the entire squad aboard the bus despite fans having been urged to stay away from Elland Road.
Thousands of fans had turned up to celebrate The Whites making it back into the Premier League after a 16-year absence.
Now, Leeds City Council has confirmed that it was a part of the decision to have the famous open-top bus ready and waiting at Elland Road - but insist that it was for crowd dispersal, not celebration.
In a statement, the Council said it was "very clear" that fans should not gather at Elland Road or any other venue in Leeds to celebrate the team's Championship win.
But the authority said that "contingency plans" were prepared in the event of large gatherings and these plans included the bus being used.
A spokesman for Leeds City Council said: "Following a meeting of the Leeds United Safety Advisory Group earlier this week, contingency plans were considered and prepared for the likely event that large numbers of fans did not adhere to the Covid-19 safety messaging and gathered outside Elland Road last night, and how to ensure they dispersed in the safest and quickest way possible.
"This included closing Lowfields Road to traffic and also an agreed approach to have the open-top bus at the ground but hidden from view and not promoted, only to be used if significant numbers of fans gathered as a method of bringing the gathering to an end effectively."
The spokesman said that, as "several thousand fans" were indeed outside the ground, the decision was taken to deploy the bus.
Leeds United had previously said that the intention was fans would disperse shortly after witnessing the team celebrate on top of the bus.
The Council has now confirmed that was the case, with most of the fans leaving the area within 40 minutes of team celebrations ending.
"All parties involved recognise the difficulties around this decision, which was made only as a method of ensuring the fans dispersed if significant numbers gathered, and would wish to thank all those fans who adhered to the requests to stay safe and stay away", the council spokesman said.
