UEFA has said it will refund Liverpool fans who bought tickets for last season’s chaotic Champions League final after acknowledging the “negative experience”.
An independent report published last month found European football’s governing body was primarily responsible for serious congestion problems outside the Stade de France in Paris.
Thousands of Liverpool fans were penned in against perimeter fences and stuck in a motorway underpass ahead of the game against Real Madrid.
Those same supporters, who had already been targeted by local youths trying to steal tickets, were then tear-gassed by police trying to alleviate further problems after a decision was made to close turnstile gates.
Following the report’s publication UEFA general secretary Theodore Theodoridis apologised to those affected by events and the governing body has now implemented a special refund scheme.
“We have taken into account a huge number of views expressed both publicly and privately and we believe we have devised a scheme that is comprehensive and fair,” said a statement.
“We value the input from the Liverpool FC supporter organisations Spirit of Shankly (SoS) and Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association (LDSA) as well as the open and transparent dialogue throughout this period.
“We recognise the negative experiences of those supporters on the day and with this scheme we will refund fans who had bought tickets and who were the most affected by the difficulties in accessing the stadium.”
Refunds will be available to all fans with tickets for gates A, B, C, X, Y and Z where the most difficult circumstances were reported plus all fans who were not able to enter the stadium before the 9pm scheduled kick-off time (the start was delayed by more than half an hour) or who were not able to enter the stadium at all will be eligible for a refund.
All fans who purchased accessibility tickets along with those of their accompanying persons will be refunded but, given the criteria, the refund will apply to all the 19,618 tickets of Liverpool’s official allocation.
Refunds are also available to Real Madrid and neutral fans who meet the criteria.
-PA
