Cologne blast Arsenal over Euro mayhem
ARSENAL escaped major sanction for their role in a night of Europa League chaos but have been accused of failing to make adequate preparations for Cologne’s visit.
The German club are set to take the brunt of the blame from UEFA, who yesterday issued four disciplinary charges against them relating to crowd disturbances, fireworks, missiles thrown and acts of damage.
Arsenal were charged over a blocked stairway in the away end and are expected to be fined less than £10,000. But there has been criticism of their readiness for the Europa League tie against a team with such a large and passionate fan-base.
A statement from Cologne released yesterday included an apology for the behaviour of some fans and stressed there was no excuse for attacks on security staff and police. It also claimed Arsenal and the Met Police were not adequately prepared despite their vast experience in hosting European football.
‘In our view, the security concept and communication seemed inadequate and the police force too small,’ said the Bundesliga club. ‘Due to the enormous demand for tickets, it would have been sensible, not least for security reasons, to allow more than the allocated five per cent of stadium capacity to the guest fans.
‘It was apparent thousands of people from Cologne would seek to avoid the restrictions and get tickets in every way possible. One such way would be through the help of Arsenal supporters, who passed on their tickets to the FC (Cologne) fans.
‘Some as gifts, but some also for horrendous prices.’
Cologne repeatedly asked for more tickets before the game, aware of the thousands who were planning to make the trip to London to savour their first European tie for 25 years.
Arsenal were opponents within easy reach, in a huge stadium with fans not nearly as interested in the Europa League as the visitors. It generated a perfect ticket storm with huge demand from away fans, far in excess of the 3,000 seats they were allocated, and low demand from home supporters.
Many Germans bought re-sold tickets for Arsenal areas of the ground, causing the Emirates Stadium to be locked down and the kick-off delayed as impromptu security meetings were held.
The game did go ahead and Arsene Wenger’s team came from behind to win 3-1.
Only five arrests were made but supporters complained about the intimidating presence of Cologne fans, especially in the section of the ground designated as a family area.
Lois Langton, chair of the Arsenal Independent Supporters Association, called it a ‘dangerous throwback to a bygone era’ and said some Cologne fans had behaved with ‘yobbish abandon’.
Tim Payton of the Arsenal Supporters Trust called on the club to get to grips with its ticket touting problem. He said: ‘I’d challenge the decision not to give a bigger allocation to Cologne fans — and the readiness of the club and the police on the day. But the club clearly has an issue with touting and we’ll ask Arsenal to put more resources into tackling the problem with more personnel, better screening or by working more closely with police.’
Like other big clubs, Arsenal fear they have a significant number of touts within their membership and season-ticket holders who gain easy access to tickets to sell on the black market. Proving these offences is more difficult owing to the complexities of the laws.
Arsenal have promised a full review and vowed to ban any members found to have sold tickets to Cologne supporters.
The club rejected accusations they were not prepared and were satisfied with the way the security operation at the stadium was able to defuse the situation with the help of a one-hour delay to the game.
A decision was made to allow fans into the stadium with genuine tickets even though it would mean some away supporters in the home end.
Arsenal estimate fewer than 10,000 Cologne fans bought tickets for the home sections of the ground and made it inside. Some with forgeries were stopped at the turnstiles and turned away.
Wenger thought the match would be postponed. ‘It looked like 90 per cent it would not take place,’ he said. ‘I thought security would never take a gamble on creating problems. To cancel the game could be worse outside the stadium.’
Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker said he enjoyed the atmosphere.
‘In a way, it was fun to play in front of two crowds battling each other,’ he said. ‘It felt good to be part of that, especially when we were 1-0 down and to get back into the game for the fans.’