UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin has announced that the European Football Union will not accept a fan exclusion in future, as was the case with the Frankfurt Champions League away game in Naples. “We have to say that if something like this happens, they won’t play there. Very simple: We will change the rules,” Ceferin told ZDF.
For the second leg of Eintracht Frankfurt in the round of 16 of the Champions League on Wednesday in Naples, the Ministry of the Interior in Rome initially banned the sale of tickets to all supporters from Germany.
After an urgent application by Eintracht was successful in court and the ban was declared invalid, the Prefecture of Naples on Sunday issued a ticket ban exclusively for supporters from the city of Frankfurt. A Frankfurt complaint against it was dismissed. Eintracht had previously announced that they would waive their away contingent of tickets.
“It’s not okay for the Italian authorities to decide that German fans are not allowed. This situation is intolerable. We urgently need to do something about it because the authorities’ decision is absolutely wrong,” added Čeferin, emphasizing that UEFA was involved in the Frankfurt lawsuit.
“We made mistakes too”
Čeferin also apologized for the chaos at last year’s Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool in Paris. He said there was nobody in UEFA who wasn’t terribly sorry for what happened in Paris. According to an independent investigation, the European Football Union bears the main responsibility for the spectator chaos surrounding the final.
“We were in the VIP area and didn’t even notice what happened. We only found out about all the chaos after the game,” reported Čeferin. The problem is that UEFA has no authority in the stadium, this is the responsibility of the organizer. “We also made mistakes and we will make sure that a situation like this doesn’t happen again,” the 55-year-old continued.
The game on May 28 had started more than half an hour late because chaotic scenes had taken place in front of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Despite tickets, many fans did not come into the huge arena. The police used tear gas, more than 230 people were injured. As a result, the Paris police prefect Didier Lallement resigned his post.
Other investigations also proved the misconduct of the authorities and UEFA, which initially also blamed Liverpool fans. All of the almost 20,000 Liverpool fans are now to be compensated because they either didn’t make it into the stadium in time for kick-off or didn’t make it at all. Real Madrid had reacted angrily and said their supporters had also suffered from the conditions surrounding their team’s 1-0 victory.