UEFA Cup Final inquiry report

A report of an inquiry into the organisation of the UEFA Cup Final in Manchester on 14 May will be considered by Manchester City Council councillors on 17 June and 25 June.

Members of the Communities and Neighbourhoods Overview & Scrutiny Committee will be recommended to note the successful staging of the Final, comment on how the event was planned and run, and request that organisers of future large scale events in the city take account of the lessons learned. The report will also be considered by the Executive on 25 June.

Chief Executive Sir Howard Bernstein's report describes how the successful staging of the UEFA Cup Final and the good behaviour of the majority of the fans visiting the city was marred by violence and disorder caused by a few hundred unruly and drunken people.

The report says that contingency planning by the organisers successfully prevented potential major problems at the stadium but that the unprecedented number of visitors put great pressure on services and caused significant disruption to the city centre, especially around Piccadilly Gardens.

A section of the report gives a countdown to the major public disorder after the match, with trouble starting long before there were problems with the screening of the match in Piccadilly Gardens that was blamed for sparking trouble.

The first reports of anti-social behaviour - missiles being thrown at the entertainers on the stage in Piccadilly Gardens and fighting between fans - came at 11.30am on the day of the final - more than eight hours before kick-off.

Problems with drunken, anti-social and criminal behaviour continued throughout the afternoon and early evening in Piccadilly Gardens as tens of thousands of fans in Albert Square, Cathedral Gardens and elsewhere in the city were enjoying a more carnival atmosphere with little trouble.

Although there was a problem with the signal to the big screen in Piccadilly Gardens at the beginning of the match, it was within minutes of being fixed when drunken and violent behaviour by a significant number but small minority of people meant technicians had to abandon their attempts to fix it.

The overwhelming number of fans in Piccadilly Gardens area meant that security staff and police had major problems with crowd control. Communications were made more difficult by fans disregarding information broadcast on the big screen, problems with people hearing loudhailer and public address system announcements above the noise of the busy city and the failure of the mobile phone networks to cope with the massive demand concentrated in a small area.

Sir Richard Leese, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: "This report confirms that the problems on the day of the successful UEFA Cup Final that was enjoyed without trouble by tens of thousands of fans were caused by the drunken and criminal behaviour of a tiny minority unfit to be called football fans.

"It is clear that several hundred visitors to the city were either so drunk or so intent on causing trouble that they spoiled the enjoyment of many thousands of genuine supporters and caused major disruption to other users of the city centre.

"Although the unprecedented circumstances are very unlikely ever to be repeated, Manchester will learn the lessons for future major events in the city.

"We have hosted many major successful events in the past and we will not let this experience prevent us from bringing many more major events to Manchester in future."

MEDIA CONTACT:

Roz Hughes, Press Office, 0161 234 3337

The report is available on the Council's website http://www.manchester.gov.uk/site/scripts/meetings_info.php?meetingID=716