UEFA facing backlash for allegedly misleading public with 'untrue evidence' on chaos surrounding 2022 Champions League Final

The Guardian reports that European football's governing body has been accused of presenting "completely untrue" evidence to its own inquiry into the 2022 Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid. Before the game, thousands of supporters suffered long queues, clashes with local thugs, and were policed ineffectively.

The allegations have been made by Sharon Burkhalter-Lau, who was second in command at the game and was UEFA's operations director at the time.

UEFA appointed a panel of experts to look into the events of the final; while they ruled that the governing body did have "primary responsibility" for the debacle, they claimed that the safety and security unit, which was led by Zeljko Pavlica, a close friend of president Aleksander Ceferin, was not at fault, and instead blamed Burkhalter-Lau's events division, because they had "marginalised" the safety unit.

The Guardian has seen memos sent to UEFA's general secretary, Theodore Theodoridis and three other senior officials, in which Burkhalter-Lau rejected the evidence and claimed it was "completely untrue". She instead claimed that the problems mainly stemmed from the Paris police, over whom UEFA have no control.

Burkhalter-Lau has also alleged that Pavlica and his team missed numerous safety briefings and failed to give important information and context for the planning process. The report claims that Pavlica's background - which is in personal security - has previously been questioned by some safety professionals.

Burkhalter-Lau wrote: “The claim that Uefa Events … senior management marginalised the Uefa security unit is based on statements provided by Uefa that were untrue and concerted."

It remains to be seen if UEFA will issue an official rebuttal to the allegations.