The Football Association gave respectable fortify for Aleksander Ceferin to be re-elected Uefa president and despatched a written endorsement, simply 3 weeks after Uefa’s catastrophic group of the Champions League ultimate in May. Senior FA officers together with the chair, Debbie Hewitt, have been on the ultimate between Liverpool and Real Madrid on the Stade de France, the place Liverpool supporters suffered crushing and violent policing, then have been falsely blamed by way of Uefa.
For weeks after the fit Liverpool supporters spoke out and supplied proof to counter UEFA’s claims that lovers have been overdue and hundreds with out legitimate tickets beaten the turnstiles. Many Liverpool lovers who had survived the Hillsborough crisis, the place South Yorkshire police advised identical lies, mentioned the revel in in Paris exacerbated their trauma.
UEFA introduced an unbiased evaluation days after the 28 May ultimate, the French senate arrange an inquiry and a ministerial respectable, Michel Cadot, carried out a fast investigation which known a chain of disastrous failings in a record on 16 June.
On the similar day, the FA leader government, Mark Bullingham, wrote to the board of English soccer’s governing frame, asking its participants to endorse Ceferin officially for re-election. Hewitt and the board agreed, and the FA wrote to UEFA giving its respectable backing. The FA didn’t make this public then, nor within the 8 months since, till the group showed it when requested by way of the Guardian this week.
Despite the chaos on the ultimate, no European FA put ahead any selection candidate by way of the January time limit, and Ceferin is ready to be re-elected for every other 4 years subsequent month, unopposed.
Ian Byrne, a Liverpool MP who used to be on the fit as a supporter and has known as on Ceferin to believe his place, mentioned: “I’m disgusted to discover the FA’s backing for Ceferin; it shows the whole football system is built on patronage. Liverpool supporters will feel betrayed that while they were dealing with their trauma and having to push back against Uefa’s false narrative, the FA, which is supposed to look after our interests, was secretly giving the Uefa president its seal of approval.”
Joe Blott, chair of the Liverpool supporters’ trust Spirit of Shankly, said: “It was always clear that Uefa and the French authorities were to blame for the entirely avoidable problems in Paris. For nearly nine months, supporters were proactively promoting the truth and seeking justice, yet the FA chose to remain silent.
“To hear that in June the FA endorsed Ceferin and his clearly dysfunctional organization is staggering, truly shocking and a huge letdown of supporters by our governing body.”
After the final, concerns were raised about alleged cronyism at UEFA, particularly in relation to the 2021 appointment of Ceferin’s close friend Zeljko Pavlica to head the safety and security unit. The Guardian reported on four further appointments of people with close ties to Ceferin in his home country of Slovenia, who had been appointed to senior UEFA positions, and criticisms from former UEFA administrators who had left citing concerns. UEFA denied cronyism, saying all appointees were “confirmed pros” and that Pavlica was highly experienced and had been the “herbal successor” for his function.
In September Ceferin appeared to confirm he had been involved in the appointments, telling Janko Petrovec, of Slovenia’s national broadcaster RTV Slovenija: “That I was accused of nepotism is, I think, your invention. That I was accused of bringing five competent Slovenians … I don’t mind. If I brought competent people that I trust to UEFA, that are hard-working people there … I think I am quite good in this world of football.”
UEFA’s independent review reported last month, finding that the European governing body had “number one accountability” for the failures that almost caused a “mass fatality disaster”, and that the safety and security unit headed by Pavlica had allowed itself to be “marginalised”.
The governance of football’s continental confederations, to which all national FAs belong, has been widely criticized in recent years and accused of being based on patronage, particularly since the corruption scandals at Fifa. Critics view the system’s apparent voting democracy as flawed, because FAs seek favor from sitting regimes and there is rarely any opposition to provide critical scrutiny.
The FA is perceived by many to have been seeking favor from Ceferin and Uefa, largely to build relationships and because it is bidding to co-host the 2028 European Championship. In October Hewitt was put forward to be UEFA’s representative as a FIFA vice-president, a position that comes with a $300,000 remuneration on top of her FA salary, for which she needs votes from European FAs and would therefore benefit from UEFA support. The Guardian understands from within football that Ceferin asked Hewitt to stand, but the FA and UEFA declined to confirm if that was the case.
Liverpool supporter groups were critical after the Paris final of the response from the FA, which said nothing publicly for nine months until UEFA’s review reported. The FA’s statement then still did not criticize UEFA, but welcomed the report’s findings and called for “sure motion” to avoid any repeat. FA sources emphasized that although the organization had made no public statement prior to that, nor made contact with any Liverpool supporter groups. For months after the final, Hewitt had privately been in regular discussion with Liverpool to offer the FA’s support.
An FA spokesperson said: “We supported Aleksander Ceferin’s re-election as president of Uefa based on his track record in the role over a number of years, which included dealing with the threat of a breakaway European Super League, and working with us to deliver the very successful Women’s European Championship in England in the summer of 2022.”
The spokesperson reiterated the FA’s welcome for the unbiased evaluation and its suggestions, and welcomed Uefa’s apology after the record, together with for “unjustly blaming the Liverpool fans”.
Uefa didn’t reply to questions, together with about Ceferin’s feedback that gave the impression to verify his involvement in appointments, or Hewitt’s candidacy for Fifa vice-president. Last month UEFA welcomed the evaluation record and mentioned it “commits to implementing key recommendations to improve fan safety at future events”.