In response to fan violence at Legia Warsaw, Aston Villa files a complaint with UEFA.
In response to fan violence at Legia Warsaw, Aston Villa files a complaint with UEFA.
Aston Villa has lodged a protest with UEFA regarding the behavior of Legia Warsaw officials and
the “unprecedented violence” exhibited by the Polish team’s supporters outside of Villa Park.
When 1,000 Polish fans showed up at the stadium on Thursday night for the Europa Conference League game
but were not issued their tickets, police detained 46 supporters of Legia following “90 minutes of sustained violence.”
“Throughout the day, Legia club officials completely disregarded West Midlands Police,
Aston Villa, and UEFA,” the Birmingham team stated in a statement on Friday. “This shocking behavior followed.”
The Warsaw club had taken issue with the fact that, in response to disturbances by Legia supporters during a game on October 5 against
AZ Alkmaar in the Netherlands, local authorities,
who license all stadium events, demanded that the ticket allocation be lowered from 1,700 to 1,000.
Villa said in a statement on Friday that Legia Warsaw had been notified four weeks prior to the game about the ticket allocation information.
The Polish team’s representatives, Villa claimed,
had declined to acknowledge whether or not they would accept their allocation until Thursday at 4 p.m.
According to Villa’s statement, “this is in stark contrast to normal UEFA operational procedures.”
When the authorities from the Polish club arrived at Villa Park at 6:16 p.m.,Villa stated, they were given the tickets after they had verified at 4 p.m.
that they would accept the allocation.
Legia Warsaw did not respond to Aston Villa’s Friday statement right away.
They accused Villa on Thursday night of “refusing to allocate tickets to away fans.”
West Midlands Police said that as part of their investigation,
they will look into why the tickets were not given out and will press charges against
those detained following injuries caused by what they called “planned violence” by the away fans to four officers,
a police dog, and a horse.
Assistant Chief Constable Damian Barratt told Talk Sport radio that the disorder
they saw last night was the worst that many of them had ever seen. He went on, “It was definitely sparked by this ticket allocation issue, as I mentioned earlier.”
“I’ll be discussing that with the football authorities, especially UEFA.”
I anticipate them making some very important choices.
Villa came out on top 2-1. The stadium’s away fans section was deserted.
UEFA declared that it was “gathering all official reports from the game before deciding on potential next steps”
and that it “strongly condemns the unacceptable violence.” At this time, we have nothing more to say or additional information to share.
Barratt reported that some of the away fans threw flares and started fires,
demonstrating “enormous hostility.”
The severity of the injuries sustained by the police officers was not disclosed.
“A flare struck one officer, setting their fluorescent jacket on fire.
Thankfully, his jacket was taken off right away, and he wasn’t hurt,
according to a statement from West Midlands Police. “After the flare’s smoke got inside his helmet, he was later admitted to the hospital due to smoke inhalation.”
Four were for “possession of a knife/offensive weapon,” four were for attacking emergency personnel,
and the majority of the arrests were for violent disorder, according to the police.
“We’ll be working hard to charge and remand those suspects where we can today,
” police said on Friday, confirming that all of the arrests were of away fans.
Villa’s president of business operations, Chris Heck, stated that the team “will be making further representations to UEFA in order to ensure that other clubs and police forces across
Europe are not exposed to similar serious safety risks at the hands of Legia Warsaw.”In 2021, during a game at Leicester, Legia supporters engaged in violent altercations with police.
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