UEFA is yet to respond to its repeated failures to accommodate disabled supporters at Champions League Finals, three months on from Level Playing Field’s letter, which demanded accountability.
The charity has received confirmation of the receipt of its letter and reassurances that a response would be provided. Ahead of this season’s Champions League group stage kicking-off next week, this has still not been provided, despite direct follow up with UEFA officials.
Reports from disabled and non-disabled Manchester City fans attending the final in June, detailed hazardous and potentially life endangering conditions for disabled supporters’ arrival and departure from the Atatürk Olympic Stadium. Level Playing Field has since shared some of these accounts, including that of Clare Watson, who broke her femur in two places at the event.
The failures in Istanbul followed horrific scenes at the 2022 UEFA Champions League Final in Paris.
Level Playing Field did receive a response to its letter following that final, when a spokesperson said:
“We (UEFA) constantly work to ensure the best possible conditions to eliminate barriers to access to UEFA competitions matches.”
The events in June proved that response to be demonstrably untrue. Not enough was learned from the review promised and UEFA’s lack of respect for disabled fans has been further shown through their absence of any response on this occasion.
Level Playing Field is the leading organisation for disabled sports fans across England and Wales. The charity consults with thousands of supporters each season and has offered to put UEFA in direct contact with fans impacted by its failures.
Chair of Level Playing Field, Tony Taylor, said: “UEFA’s lack of response is deeply concerning, yet not surprising.
“After repeated failures, we demanded accountability. With no appetite to provide that, it is clear that their strategy has been to ignore the issue in the hope that it goes away.
“This continued lack of respect towards disabled fans cannot go unchallenged, however. Accessibility and inclusion must be at the forefront when planning these major finals, and there must be tangible evidence of that.
“Any response to this year’s letter would have revealed the hollowness of their statements in 2022, but there remain questions in there which need to be answered.
“This season’s final is set to be held at Wembley Stadium and we have already reached out to see where we can provide support, in order to ensure accessibility is placed as a priority.”
The letter to UEFA General Secretary Theodore Theodoridis can be read in full on the Level Playing Field website.