Uefa ignores calls to throw Legia Warsaw out of Europe following Aston Villa violence

Uefa disciplinary chiefs have rejected calls from the head of football policing in the UK for Legia Warsaw to be thrown out of the Europa Conference League over the fan violence that left five officers injured before the club’s defeat at Aston Villa.

The governing body’s Control, Ethics and Disciplinary body has banned the Polish side from selling tickets to its away supporters for its next five Uefa competition matches and fined them €100,000 (£86,196) after finding them guilty of crowd disturbances, acts of damage, throwing of objects and lighting of fireworks.

Legia were also ordered to contact Villa within 30 days to arrange payment for the broken high fences and lighting pole caused by their supporters’ attempt to force entry to the Nov 30 game at Villa Park.

But the sanctions stopped short of those demanded by Chief Constable Mark Roberts – who leads the country’s Football Policing Unit – over violence he said left one police officer needing hospital treatment for burns caused by a flare thrown by a Legia fans and also saw two horses and two dogs hurt.

“Sadly, Legia have become well known in Europe for appalling fan behaviour,” Roberts told The Times, confirming 46 arrests had been made over the trouble.

He added: “I think there is a really good case for having them thrown out of the tournament.”

Legia fans were banned entry to Villa Park after clashing with police and throwing fireworks before the match.

Footage appeared to show missiles being thrown into the stadium from outside the ground and midway through the first half of Villa’s 2-1 win, while some travelling supporters appeared to try and break into the ground.

Away fans had been given 1,000 tickets for the game, after their allocation had been cut from 1,700 on police and safety advice. Dutch police officers were injured during Legia’s group match against AZ Alkmaar in October and Uefa banned the club’s supporters from travelling to their game at HŠK Zrinjski as a result. Another 1,000 supporters had been expected to turn up at Villa Park without tickets.

Legia issued a statement on their official website that accused 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 being thrown out of Europe for the behaviour of their fans would not be entirely without precedent, with English teams banned for five years following the Heysel Stadium disaster – although that sanction followed what was a major sporting tragedy.

Villa lodged an official complaint to Uefa the day after the game about “the conduct of Legia Warsaw Football Club and the behaviour of their supporters” saying in a statement: “This shocking behaviour followed Legia club officials’ complete lack of cooperation with West Midlands Police, Aston Villa and Uefa throughout the day.

“It started during the standard pre-match operational meeting that commenced at 10.30am on Thursday morning and was attended by Uefa representatives, including Uefa’s security team, as well as West Midlands Police including representatives from both clubs. Legia Warsaw refused to confirm if they would accept their allocation of tickets for the match at that point. This is in stark contrast to normal Uefa operational procedures.

“They advised the meeting that they would meet with their supporters at 2.30pm and communicate the decision at 3pm but advised 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 wished to receive their ticket allocation.

“These tickets were handed to Legia officials immediately upon their arrival at the stadium at 6.16pm. To reiterate, Legia officials were advised on a call that included a number of Uefa representatives on November 2 that they would receive an allocation of 1002 – exactly four weeks prior to last night’s fixture.”

‘Scenes of disorder from the Legia fans have no place in modern football’

Chris Heck, the club’s president of business operations, added: “The lack of cooperation and prevarication from Legia Warsaw officials prior to the match was entirely unacceptable and deeply disappointing.

“This behaviour increased the danger that West Midlands Police officers and our own fans were subjected to before the game and the scenes of disorder from the Legia fans have no place in modern football or civilised society.

“Aston Villa 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.

“We are immensely grateful to West Midlands Police for keeping our supporters and our local community safe last night and are pleased that they will also be making their own representations via the UK police authorities to Uefa.”