It’s been a while, but with the recent trip to Paris now behind us and the potential of another Champions League final on the horizon, the events of the 2022 final at the Stade de France have come back into the news.
Friday The Guardian reported that a judge in the UK ruled that Liverpool fans that had been injured during the chaos of the UEFA Champions League final in 2022 can have their personal injury claims heard by the courts.
As we reported when it happened, a number of fans were injured as they were held back and overcrowded by stadium police, teargassed, and attacked by local gangs. Children brought for their first final match were pepper sprayed by Paris police. Tear gas was released in the fan park set up in the city center to clear the area.
While multiple investigations were opened by the club, and even Real Madrid expressed their outrage at how the fans were treated by officials, little has come of it since that year. In fact, when the Reds drew Paris St. Germain for their round of 16 opponent this season, there were still concerns by fans over returning to the city after the treatment they suffered nearly three years ago.
UEFA, unsurprisingly, had attempted to block the judge’s decision that would allow these personal injury claims to be heard in Liverpool, but were thankfully rejected. Claims could also include the allegation that UEFA failed to provide a safe environment for fans on the day. While their own report, independently reviewed but commissioned by the football governing body, concluded that “the near miss experienced at the Champions League final was largely the result of poor planning, a lack of oversight of plans, poor interoperability between various stakeholders, and a lack of contingencies”. The report concluded that UEFA bore “primary responsibility” for the organizational and safety failures.
The Guardian goes on to report that “high court proceedings were brought in April 2023 by the law firm Leigh Day. UEFA then sought to block the cases being heard in Liverpool, using the common law Foreign Act of State doctrine, which is the principle that English courts will not inquire into the legality of acts by a foreign government.
“This application was heard in July 2024 and was rejected by the high court on Friday morning, which means personal injury claims will be able to be brought in the fans’ home city.”
Obviously this has been a very long time in litigation. The incident occurred in May 2022, the UEFA report came out in February 2023, and cases were brought in April of that year. We are now in 2025, and some such claims from fans have already been “resolved” and with only two cases remaining, the sense is that both parties want to get the whole situation past them.
Clare Campbell, one of the personal injury lawyers representing some of the fans, said to The Guardian her clients were “delighted” the claims could proceed. “However, they have suffered significant delay due to the defendants’ attempt to prevent the claims being heard in the English courts – they now want their claims to be resolved as soon as possible in the hope that they can move on with their lives.”
Unfortunately, as we know through Hillsborough proceedings, no amount of legal maneuvering will undo the trauma suffered by fans, at the hands of the French police and UEFA’s substandard planning. The club has done their best to fight on behalf of us, but we may not hear again about this cases for a long time.