Liverpool fans press on with Paris claims despite refund offer

Lawyers pursuing football authorities on behalf of Liverpool fans following events at last year’s Champions League final in Paris say the latest offer of a refund should not affect ongoing claims.

Fans say they were pepper sprayed by police, crushed in tight holding pens and left at the mercy of local gangs before and after the showpiece final last May.

Around 2,900 people have registered their interest in making a personal injury claim with Liverpool firm Binghams Solicitors and some 2,000 are now signed up as clients on CFAs.

Governing body UEFA said last week it would give special refunds for fans who were most affected by events at the Stade de France.

Gerard Long, managing director and solicitor with Binghams, said the advice to clients was to accept the refund offer and continue with their claims. ‘The refund offer is as we understand it unconditional,’ he said. ‘It is like breaking a leg in a Spanish hotel and then being offered a free lunch – it doesn’t compensate for what happened.’

The firm, working alongside group litigation specialist Pogust Goodhead, will bring the claims in an English court according to French law, and has instructed a French professor to advise on the legal process.

Long said friends and family caught up in the chaos say that a serious disaster was a real possibility, and many of those with claims are still receiving counselling to help with what they went through – particularly those who had been present in 1989 when Liverpool fans died in the Hillsborough tragedy.

It is alleged that fans on the evening were tear gassed, including women and children, and other supporters were sexually assaulted. Others had their personal belongings stolen, including tickets for the game, and were assaulted as they made their way back to coaches and trains. Many were injured through mass congestion in and around the stadium.

UEFA and the French authorities initially sought to blame supporters without tickets, but the football organisation’s own review last month concluded there had been no evidence to support such claims. Instead, UEFA bore ‘primary responsibility’ for organisational safety failures and the dangerous conditions on the concourse outside were compounded by the police using pepper spray and tear gas.

The report added: ‘It is remarkable that no one lost their life. All the stakeholders interviewed by the panel have agreed that this situation was a near-miss: a term used when an event almost turns into a mass fatality catastrophe.’