UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin has announced that the European Football Union will not accept a fan ban like the one at the Frankfurt Champions League away game in Naples. "We have to say, when something like this happens, they don't play there. Quite simply: We will change the rules," Ceferin told ZDF.
For the second leg of Eintracht Frankfurt in the knockout round of the Champions League on Wednesday in Naples, the Ministry of the Interior in Rome had initially banned the sale of tickets to all supporters from Germany.
After an urgent application by Eintracht had been successful in court and the ban had been declared invalid, the prefecture of Naples issued a ticket ban on Sunday exclusively for supporters from the city of Frankfurt. A Frankfurt appeal, however, was dismissed. Eintracht had previously announced that they would waive their away contingent of tickets.
"It is not acceptable for the Italian authorities to decide that German fans are not allowed. This situation is intolerable. We urgently need to do something about it, because the decision of the authorities is absolutely not correct," Čeferin added, stressing that UEFA had been involved in the Frankfurt lawsuit.
"We also made mistakes"
Čeferin also apologised for the chaos surrounding the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Liverpool FC in Paris last year. He said there was no one in UEFA who was not terribly sorry for what happened in Paris. According to an independent investigation, the European Football Union bears the main responsibility for the spectator chaos surrounding the final.
"We were in the VIP area and didn't even notice what happened. It was only after the game that we found out about all the chaos," reported Čeferin. The problem is that UEFA has no control in the stadium, this is up to the host. "We also made mistakes and we will make sure that such a situation does not happen again," the 55-year-old continued.
The match on 28 May had started more than half an hour late because chaotic scenes had taken place in front of the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. Many fans did not come to the huge arena despite tickets. The police used tear gas, more than 230 people were injured. The Paris police prefect Didier Lallement vacated his post as a consequence.
Other investigations also proved the misconduct of the authorities and UEFA, which had initially also blamed Liverpool fans. All almost 20,000 Liverpool fans are now to be compensated because they either did not make it into the stadium in time for kick-off or did not make it into the stadium at all. Real Madrid had reacted angrily and declared that his supporters had also suffered from the conditions around their team's 1-0 victory.