It’s the biggest club game in European football, the pinnacle of the football season and the gala event that every club on the continent would love to be involved in; yes it’s the UEFA Champions League Final.

This year was a repeat of arguably the greatest European final of all time as AC Milan attempted to gain revenge against a Liverpool side that so cruelly robbed them of glory in 2005 after staging a remarkable come back from 3-0 down to win in dramatic fashion on penalties.

The whole of Europe hoped for a some sort of repeat between these two giants of the European game and fans from both Italy and England descended on the Greek capital of Athens expecting the same sort of carnival atmosphere that they had created together two years earlier.

AC Milan managed gain revenge for their Istanbul heartbreak by securing a 2-1 victory slightly against the run of play, but the result somehow seemed secondary to other events that surrounded the final. The ticketing and crowd problems followed by UEFA’s    mud slinging after the event have certainly left a sour taste in the mouths of many fans.

Despite being allocated a paltry 17,000 tickets for the final each, Liverpool again took a huge following to Greece of well over 40,000 fans, all hoping to get tickets whilst in Athens. This is not an unusual occurrence for fans of the Reds and they took a similar number to Istanbul in 2005.

I was one of the lucky fans to get an official ticket to the game and (despite the result) had a fantastic day. The atmosphere between the two sets of fans was warm and friendly as we relived tales of two years ago together over a few cold beers before our two sides locked horns to battle for Europe’s most prestigious prize.

Despite the loss to Milan, Liverpool supporters did themselves great credit by remaining in the stadium to applaud the new European Champions in good grace, a move which is rarely seen in football. Liverpool had also been praised by UEFA for the fantastic atmosphere created in the semi-final against Chelsea and were also awarded as joint fans of the year just three years earlier.

So you can imagine the shock in the days after the final at hearing the same governing body branding Liverpool fans as “the worst behaved in Europe”!

The claim was made by UEFA official spokesman William Galliard after a number of Liverpool fans gained entry to the ground with fake tickets whilst thousands of fans with official tickets where refused entry and then beaten and tear gassed by Greek riot police.

I am not for one minute absolving the minority of Liverpool supporters who deprived fans with real tickets from blame. They have to take some responsibility for their actions and officials from Liverpool have admitted this. However UEFA’s attempts to pin the fiasco solely on Liverpool is nothing short of a disgrace and cowardly.

I witnessed the events at the stadium first hand and as a fan who has been to many of the great stadiums in world football, to say I was shocked at the standard of the Olympic Stadium in Athens would be a massive understatement.

Firstly, for UEFA to choose a stadium without turnstiles to check tickets is nothing short of unforgivable for the biggest club game in football. There were little or no checks in place as fans where told to just wave their tickets in the air to gain entry. One fan next to me gained entry by waiving a cigarette box in the air!

Liverpool had also informed UEFA a week before the final of some 15-20,000 forged tickets in existence, yet the governing body again did nothing to stem the flow.

The organisational problems where in evidence immediately after the conclusion of the semi-finals, some three weeks earlier. The allocation of tickets was pathetic considering the enormous following of both clubs and the fact that more tickets were awarded to corporate sponsors of the final than the two teams involved is sickening considering the amount of money loyal supporters pour into the game every season.

Not being able to follow your team in any major event is a blow but to lose out to corporate suits who could not careless about the result is just wrong.

UEFA’s excuse for the low allocation and ticket problems was that it wasn’t their fault as “the stadium was not built for football”! Well excuse me they picked the stadium so just whose fault is it?

Well according to Galliard the blame is firmly on the door step of Liverpool football club and their problematic fans!

There is no accountability in UEFA, who appear content to pass the blame to anyone but themselves. The fact remains that they poorly organised a huge event despite warnings that the stadium did not have the infrastructure to cope with a game of this magnitude.

As for the worst fans in Europe claim……….

This claim was apparently made following a secret UEFA report (which they will not make public!) claiming Liverpool fans had been involved in more incidents than any other fans in Europe over the last five years. .It has been reported that these ‘incidents’ included the theft of banners and chanting and singing in the street!

Apparently these offence’s make supporters of Liverpool worse than the Italian fans who stabbed a police officer to death at a game involving Catania and Palermo earlier in the season, the Danish fan who ran on the pitch to attack a referee for awarding a late penalty or the Roma fans who attacked Manchester United supporters earlier in the competition which led to over zealous riot police battering some fans to a bloody pulp!

Well I don’t believe it is rocket science in figuring out which incidents are the more serious, not just in the context of the game but in the context of society as a whole.

UEFA have not only shown themselves up as poor custodians of the game they have also embarrassed themselves with their post match claims. Until they take responsibility for their own short comings the organisation of the game will not improve and, more alarmingly, it could be a matter of time before another football tragedy becomes a horrifying reality.