by Uefa’s disciplinary chiefs rejected calls from the UK’s football police chief to throw Legia Warsaw out of the Europa League because of fan violence that left five officials injured before the club lost at Aston Villa.
The Polish team have been banned from selling tickets to their away supporters for their next five Uefa competition matches and fined €100,000 (£86,196) by the governing body’s Governing Body, Ethics and Disciplinary after being found guilty of crowd disturbances, acts of damage, consumption. objects and light fireworks.
Legia were also ordered to contact Villa within 30 days to arrange payment for the broken high fences and light post caused by their supporters’ attempt to enter the November 30 match at Villa Park.
But the sanctions fell short of those demanded by Chief Constable Mark Roberts – who heads the country’s Football Policing Unit – over violence he said had left one police officer needing hospital treatment for burns caused by a fan thrown by Legia fans and saw two horses and two dogs injured.
“Sadly, Legia is notorious in Europe for the horrible behavior of the fans,” said Roberts The Risingconfirming that 46 arrests were made in connection with the trouble.
He added: “I think there is a very good case to throw them out of the competition.”
Legia fans were banned from Villa Park after clashing with police and setting off fireworks before the match.
Footage appeared to show missiles being thrown into the stadium from outside the ground midway through the first half of Villa’s 2-1 win, and some traveling supporters appeared to attempt to break into the ground .
Away fans were given 1,000 tickets for the game, after having their allocation cut from 1,700 on police and safety advice. Dutch police officers were injured during Legia’s group game against AZ Alkmaar in October and Uefa banned the club’s supporters from traveling to their match at HŠK Zrinjski as a result. A further 1,000 supporters were expected to turn up at Villa Park without tickets.
Legia issued 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 ticketless fans arriving at Villa Park.
A club would not be thrown out of Europe for the behavior of its fans is completely unprecedented, with English teams banned for five years after the Heysel Stadium disaster – although that sanction followed a major sporting tragedy.
Villa submitted an official complaint to Uefa the day after the match about “the behavior of Legia Football Club Warsaw and the behavior of its supporters” saying in a statement: “This appalling behavior followed the complete lack of co-operation of Legia club officials with the Western Police Midland. , Aston Villa and Uefa during the day.
“It started during the usual pre-match operational meeting which started at 10.30am on Thursday morning and was attended by Uefa representatives, including Uefa security staff, as well as West Midlands Police including representatives from both clubs. Legia Warsaw refused to confirm whether they would accept their allocation of tickets for the match at that stage. This is in stark contrast to Uefa’s normal operating procedures.
“They indicated to the meeting that they would meet their supporters at 2.30pm and communicate the decision at 3pm but indicated that there was a possibility that they would not accept the tickets.
“Despite repeated requests before and after the 3pm deadline for a decision, there was no communication until 4pm when Legia informed Aston Villa that they wanted their ticket allocation.
“These tickets were handed over to Legia officials immediately after they arrived at the stadium at 6.16pm. As a reminder, Legia officials were informed in a call that included several Uefa representatives on November 2 that they would receive allocation 1002 – just four weeks before last night’s game.”
Chris Heck, the club’s president of business operations, said: “The lack of cooperation and indifference from Legia Warsaw officials before the game was unacceptable and very disappointing.
“This behavior increased the danger that West Midlands Police officers and our own fans were subjected to before the game and scenes of disorder from Legia fans have no place in modern football or civil society.
“Aston Villa will be making further representations to Uefa to ensure that other clubs and police forces across Europe are not exposed to similar serious safety risks at the hands of Legia Warsaw.
“We are extremely grateful to West Midlands Police for keeping our supporters and local community safe last night and we are pleased that they will also be making their own representations to Uefa through UK police authorities.”
