UEFA Champions League Final 2022: Independent Review Findings
Debate between Alison McGovern and Ian Byrne(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Ian Byrne
Absolutely. I thank my hon. Friend and I will touch on that point in a minute, because we have the fantastic Ted Morris from the Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association in the room.
The report states:
“It was a serious error for UEFA to assume it could avoid accountability for a foreseeable near disaster at its flagship event”.
That statement is utterly damning. Now that we have the report, what happens next? Two of the foremost campaigners for the truth about Paris are Joe Blott, the chair of the Spirit of Shankly and the Liverpool Supporters Board, and Ted Morris, from the Liverpool Disabled Supporters Association. They are clear about what should happen next. I am proud to have Ted Morris sitting in the room with us. Joe Blott said:
“UEFA and all authorities must now accept all 21 recommendations cited in the report and act upon them. They must apologise for the lies and smears they used to shift responsibility from themselves to innocent fans and they must formally retract the untrue statements made about supporters. UEFA must ensure that this never happens again and do everything in their power to enable all supporters to attend football matches secure in the knowledge that their safety is paramount and will not be compromised.”
Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab)
Does my hon. Friend agree that what is most worrying about these events is that they were entirely foreseeable, given what had happened at European football matches involving numbers of different sets of fans in recent years? Does he worry, as I do, that the lessons will not be learned as speedily as we want them to be, precisely because attention was not paid to the near misses and evidence that something like this could take place until it was too late?