UEFA’s decision to punish Atletico Madrid for racism and disorganisation during their Champions League match with Marseille last month was all very well and good. However, by opting to immediately apply a three-match stadium ban, they confirmed their complete detachment from the reality of ordinary fandom.
Who exactly in UEFA thought it acceptable to move a game that numerous travelling fans had already made arrangements for 300 kilometres from the Spanish capital? Who decided that it was entirely appropriate to announce this decision just eight days before the game was due to take place? I think we should be told.
It’s staggering, but not entirely surprising, that UEFA could be so completely divorced from the ordinary fan. Thankfully, UEFA backed down when the inevitable uproar ensued and allowed the match to go ahead as originally planned.
That said, there was some irony in the bleatings of Liverpool fans. Though they were blackguarded by UEFA this time around, perhaps now they know what it must have felt like for fans of other English clubs when those clubs’ fans were criminally punished for the actions of a minority of their own.
With the gleeful support of Margaret Thatcher’s crusade against the working class, the spineless English FA capitulated to a perverse politically correct and legally incorrect ban on all English clubs after the Heysel disaster. Any club that deemed to argue their open and shut case was ostracised for putting their own trivial interests ahead of the 39 who died in Brussels – even though those tragic and preventable deaths had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the other English clubs.
Imagine such a scenario today, where Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United would be banned from Europe after a riot that involved Chelsea and meekly agreed to exclusion from the Champions League. Too right, you can’t. This is one instance where we can safely say that the shift in the balance of power between officials and clubs is a good thing.