NYON: The European football federation has produced its regulation-updating response to the chaos at the Champions League Final at the Stade de France last year. A new system aims to implement recommendations from an independent panel which was highly critical of UEFA.

The final was delayed by 36 minutes after thousands of Liverpool supporters were unable to get into the Stade de France for the match on May 28, which Real Madrid won 1-0.

UEFA apologised to Liverpool for initially blaming the Merseyside club’s fans for the mayhem following the release of the review in February. It said it had since undertaken “positive dialogue” with fans through the group Football Supporters Europe to ensure they are involved in finals in the future.

A statement from general secretary Theodore Theodoridis said: “At UEFA, we are fully committed to ensuring that every football fan can enjoy their team’s appearance in a UEFA final in a safe, secure, and welcoming environment.

“We have developed and implemented comprehensive operational measures which incorporate the recommendations… and the valuable input of fan groups to enhance safety and security at our club and national team competition finals.”

UEFA said it would work with FSE, its supporters network and finalists to determine how many fans would be travelling to the host cities, make arrangements along with local authorities such as setting up fan zones and improving fan communication.

A statement said: “FSE representatives are also integrated into the matchday operational teams for each final and are part of the revised comprehensive debrief process to ensure lessons learned are integrated into future finals.”

UEFA said it has increased the number of its safety and security officers who will cover finals while it has commissioned crowd modelling reports for finals this year.

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