The FA controversially gave official support for Aleksander Ceferin to be re-elected UEFA president just weeks after their shambolic organisation of the Champions League final in Paris.
Liverpool fans, who were victims of crushing and violent policing, were falsely blamed by UEFA for kick-off at the Stade de France being delayed by 36 minutes, as they were accused of overwhelming turnstiles by turning up late without valid tickets.
An independent UEFA review reported last month ‘primary responsibility’ for the failures that almost caused a ‘mass fatality catastrophe’ lay with the governing body, while the French senate’s one inquiry identified a series of disastrous failings in a report on June 16 last year.
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Yet it has emerged that on the same day, the FA chief executive, Mark Bullingham, wrote to the board of English football’s governing body, asking them to formally endorse Ceferin for re-election. The Guardian reports that FA chairwoman Debbie Hewitt, who attended last year’s final in Paris on May 28, and the board agreed with the FA then writing to UEFA to give Ceferin their official backing.
The FA would not publicise their stance at the time, or in the eight months since, with it only confirmed when they were asked by The Guardian earlier this week.
Liverpool fans protested against UEFA at Anfield last month during their Champions League round-of-16 clash with Real Madrid, and have repeatedly called for Ceferin to resign. Yet with no alternative candidate put forward before the January deadline, Ceferin is now set to be re-elected unopposed to serve as UEFA president for another four years.
Liverpool MP Ian Bryne, who attended the final in Paris and has called for Ceferin to consider his position, was disgusted to learn the FA had endorsed the UEFA president for re-election.
“I’m disgusted to discover the FA’s backing for Ceferin; it shows the whole football system is built on patronage,” The Guardian quote him as saying. “Liverpool supporters will feel betrayed that while they were dealing with their trauma and having to push back against UEFA’s false narrative, the FA, which is supposed to look after our interests, was secretly giving the UEFA president its seal of approval.”
Meanwhile, Joe Blott, chair of the Liverpool supporters’ trust Spirit of Shankly, said: “It was always clear that UEFA and the French authorities were to blame for the entirely avoidable problems in Paris.
“For nearly nine months, supporters were proactively promoting the truth and seeking justice, yet the FA chose to remain silent.
“To hear that in June the FA endorsed Ceferin and his clearly dysfunctional organisation is staggering, truly shocking and a huge let down of supporters by our governing body.”
Of the FA’s backing of Ceferin, an FA spokesperson said: “We supported Aleksander Ceferin’s re-election as president of UEFA based on his track record in the role over a number of years, which included dealing with the threat of a breakaway European Super League, and working with us to deliver the very successful Women’s European championships in England in the summer of 2022.”
They would also reiterate how the FA welcomed the independent review and its recommendations, as well as the UEFA apology after the report for “unjustly blaming the Liverpool fans.”
Liverpool supporter groups are still critical of the FA’s response to their treatment at the final in Paris, however, after the governing body said nothing publicly for nine months prior to the UEFA review being reported. Their subsequent statement then still did not criticise the governing body, but welcomed the report’s findings and called for “positive action” to avoid any repeat.
The Guardian quotes FA sources as emphasising that although they made no prior public statement, nor contact with Liverpool supporter groups, Hewitt had privately been in regular discussion with the club to offer the FA’s support.
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