Top two Uefa executives went to playoff final day after Champions League chaos
Uefa has defended the decision of its two most senior executives to leave Paris early the day after the Champions League final descended into horror and chaos, to watch the Championship playoff final at Wembley.
Theodore Theodoridis, Uefa’s general secretary – the equivalent of chief executive – and his deputy, Giorgio Marchetti, were guests of the EFL at the final between Nottingham Forest and Huddersfield. Theodoridis and Marchetti were in the dignitaries’ seats at Wembley, after the scenes in Paris where thousands of supporters were held in distressingly long queues and many were teargassed by French police and violently attacked by local thugs around the Stade de France.
By Monday 30 May, two days later, Uefa announced it had set up an “independent review” into the Paris failures, and selected a Portuguese MP, Dr Tiago Brandão Rodrigues, to lead it. Liverpool and their supporters questioned the credibility and independence of the review and of Rodrigues, and the rigour of Uefa’s processes, and the realisation that Uefa’s two most senior administrators were at Wembley through the Sunday afternoon has increased resistance to it. Uefa has insisted that Theodoridis was able to devote himself fully to Uefa’s response, on calls and video conferences from London.
The Champions League final was delayed for 36 minutes and did not finish until close to midnight on Saturday 28 May, then violent attacks on Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters took place in the early hours of Sunday morning on their way out of the stadium. In an internal email to Uefa staff on Thursday 2 June, six days later, Theodoridis acknowledged that the scenes outside the stadium were harrowing, frightening, distressing and shocking, and apologised for them, then Uefa apologised publicly to supporters the following day.
On Sunday 29 May, with Uefa waking up to the shock and distress of its staff and thousands of fans, and a burgeoning international scandal, Theodoridis and Marchetti left Paris on a midday train, for a prearranged four days in London. Theodoridis, who supports Olympiakos, sat at Wembley behind the Nottingham Forest owner, Evangelos Marinakis, who also owns the Athens club, leading some observers to presume that he went as a guest of Marinakis.
However, Uefa has explained that Theodoridis had decided three weeks previously that it would be a good idea to attend, because Uefa was jointly organising the “Finalissima” match between Italy and Argentina at Wembley on Wednesday 1 June. A Uefa spokesperson said Theodoridis had asked the English Football Association on 11 May for the tickets to the Championship playoff final, which was before Forest won the semi-final on 17 May, so he was not a guest of Marinakis.
The spokesperson said that Theodoridis was in “permanent contact” with key people at Uefa from London and able to work throughout his trip on the Paris response, as well as on the organisation of the Finalissima match.
“Prior to their departure to London, they held meetings with various persons from the top management of Uefa to discuss the events of the previous night and to start discussions on the next steps to take,” the spokesperson said.
“Please note that it is very common for Mr Theodoridis to attend games while travelling, as it allows him to meet various stakeholders.”
Ian Byrne, the Liverpool MP and board member of the supporters’ trust Spirit of Shankly, said that this greater understanding of Uefa’s decision-making had further confirmed his view that the process to establish the review and appoint the chairman was inadequate.
“You have to question their priorities,” Byrne said. “Thousands of supporters suffered terribly in Paris and we only narrowly avoided another catastrophic disaster with people losing their lives. You would have thought Uefa’s top executives would have wanted to stay in Paris and really find out what went wrong, and wouldn’t go to Wembley the next day to watch an unconnected match. It makes me further question how much rigour went into establishing the review.”
The Uefa spokesperson insisted that the work was still rigorous, saying: “The follow-up of the events in Paris took centre stage in the agenda of the days in London and led to completing immediately needed steps such as reviewing initial internal reports, the appointment of the chairman of the independent review and all arrangements required for the review to start without delay.”
You would have thought Uefa’s top executives would have wanted to stay in Paris and really find out what went wrong
Ian Byrne MP