In the wake of a damning report into the events that occurred during the Champions League final of the previous season, calls for UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin to step down have been met with resistance by Jürgen Klopp.
Nonetheless, the manager of Liverpool voiced his opinion that someone inside the governing body of European football should be held accountable for making the “worst conceivable” choice when they decided to hold the tournament at the Stadium de France in Paris.
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The results of an investigation into the chaotic scenes that occurred prior to Liverpool’s meeting with Real Madrid in May of last year were disclosed earlier this week by a group of experts who conducted the probe.
The investigation pointed the finger of blame directly at UEFA and the French authorities, but it also gave praise to Liverpool fans for saving the lives of their fellow fans in the face of perilous crowding that were made worse by the heavy-handed enforcement.
These findings have put pressure on Ceferin, who is poised to run for re-election later this year without facing any opposition. But, when asked if the Slovenian should step down, Klopp responded: “I don’t think so.” “No. To tell you the trυth, I have no idea who came to that conclusion.
“I’m a boss to certain individuals as well, and there are a lot of topics that I’m not completely knowledgeable about, so I collect information from other people before I make a judgment.”
When decisions are based on accurate information, the quality of those decisions improves. So it’s possible that Mr. Ceferin was the one who made the decision, but I can’t imagine him travelling to Paris, Rome, or Berlin only to find out where the finest location is.
“Isn’t it possible that one of them ought to [resign]?”
As a result of Russia’s invasion of υkraine in February of last year, the country was stripped of the right to host the Champions League final game, which meant that the decision to move the game from Moscow to Paris had to be made on short notice.
But Klopp is not only of the opinion that UEFA made the incorrect choice of venue; he is also of the opinion that the preparations made for the day’s security were lacking. He proceeded by saying: “In that particular region on that day, I believe that Paris was the worst possible [option] that could have been made.
“Not a stadium that is used to it happening every two weeks as many of Europe’s major stadiums and the major towns in Europe where they play every two weeks are.
“It could have gone to Wembley, but I’m not sure when the last time was, so maybe that option is out of the question; however, this is a unique circumstance. It might have been delivered in Berlin.
“Even if Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid is undergoing reconstruction, there may certainly still vacancies at other venues. From the very beginning, I had the impression that it was not a sound plan. Yet in the end, this particular location could have had a significantly more organized layout than it currently had.” When it comes down to it, I believe that UEFA will make the decision because they believe it to be the correct one; after all, what other justification could there be?
And then some of the employees who work there should have done a better job since everyone who was there is aware that the employees who worked there did not know everything that they were doing one hundred percent of the time.
“They were not accustomed to the large numbers of people, and it is impossible to deal with volunteers on a day like this when there are so many individuals arriving to serve for whatever reason for the first or second time. It is possible for it to be a wonderful day, but you need to have individuals with experience, and today was definitely not that day.”