UEFA disciplinary chiefs have rejected calls from the head of England’s football police to expel Legia Warsaw from the Europa Conference League over fan violence that left five officials injured before the club’s defeat to Aston Villa.
The governing body’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary body banned the Polish side from selling tickets to away fans for the next five UEFA competitions and fined them €100,000 (£86,196) after finding them guilty of crowd disturbance, damage, throwing and hurling. illumination of objects and fireworks.
Legia were also ordered to contact Villa within 30 days to arrange payment for broken high fences and lampposts caused by their fans’ attempt to break into the November 30 match at Villa Park.
However, the sanctions fell short of those requested by Chief Constable Mark Roberts, who heads the country’s Football Police Unit, due to the violence; He said that a police officer had suffered burns caused by a flare fired by Legia fans, causing him to need hospital treatment, and that he had also seen two horses and two horses. two dogs were injured.
“Unfortunately Legia are known in Europe for appalling fan behavior,” Roberts said. TimesHe confirmed that 46 people had been arrested over the issue.
He added: “I think there was a really good reason why they were kicked out of the tournament.”
Legia fans were banned from entering Villa Park after clashing with police and throwing fireworks before the match.
Footage shows missiles being fired into the stadium from outside the ground in the middle of the first half of Villa’s 2-1 win, while some traveling fans attempted to enter the ground.
Away fans were given 1,000 tickets for the match after their allocation was reduced from 1,700 on police and security advice. Dutch police officers were injured during Legia’s group match against AZ Alkmaar in October, and as a result UEFA banned the club’s fans from attending their matches at HŠK Zrinjski. Another 1,000 fans were expected to arrive at Villa Park without tickets.
Legia published a statement on their official website accusing Villa of refusing to allocate tickets, but the Premier League club hit back and said the Polish side had not co-operated with them over the threat of fans coming to Villa Park without tickets.
It would not be an unprecedented case of a club being kicked out of Europe because of the behavior of its fans; English teams were banned for five years following the Heysel Stadium disaster; However, this sanction came after a major sports tragedy.
Villa lodged a formal complaint with UEFA the day after the match about “the conduct of Legia Warsaw Football Club and the behavior of their fans”, saying: “This shocking behavior follows a failure by Legia club officials to fully co-operate with West Midlands Police throughout the day.” Aston Villa and UEFA.
“It started during the standard pre-match operational meeting which started at 10.30am on Thursday morning and was attended by UEFA representatives, including the UEFA security team, as well as West Midlands Police, including representatives from both clubs. Legia Warsaw have refused to confirm whether they will accept ticket allocations for the match at this point. This is in stark contrast to normal UEFA operational procedures.
“They informed the meeting that they would meet with their fans at 14.30 and announce the decision at 15.00, but there was a possibility that they would not accept the tickets.
“Despite repeated requests for a decision before and after 15:00, there was no communication until 16:00 when Legia informed Aston Villa that they wished to receive the ticket allocation.
“These tickets were delivered to Legia officials as soon as they arrived at the stadium at 18.16. To reiterate, Legia officials were informed on 2 November, in a call involving a number of UEFA representatives, that they would be given an allocation of $1,002 – exactly four weeks before last night’s match.”
‘The riotous scenes of Legia fans have no place in modern football’
Chris Heck, the club’s head of commercial operations, added: “The lack of co-operation and evasion from Legia Warsaw officials ahead of the match was completely unacceptable and deeply disappointing.
“This behavior increased the danger to West Midlands Police officers and our own fans in the run-up to the match, and scenes of chaos from Legia fans have no place in modern football or civilized society.
“Aston Villa will make further representations to UEFA to ensure that other clubs and police forces in Europe are not exposed to similar serious security risks posed by Legia Warsaw.
“We are extremely grateful to West Midlands Police for keeping our fans and local community safe last night and we are also delighted that they will be making their own representation at UEFA through the UK police authorities.”