Police arrested 46 followers of the Polish membership after clashes earlier than a Europa Convention League recreation at Villa Park.
Aston Villa have filed a grievance with UEFA over the conduct of Legia Warsaw officers and the “unprecedented violence” of the Polish crew’s followers exterior Villa Park.
Police arrested 46 Legia supporters after “90 minutes of sustained violence” on Thursday evening when 1,000 Polish followers arrived on the stadium however weren’t given their tickets to the Europa Convention League recreation.
“This shocking behaviour followed Legia club officials’ complete lack of cooperation with West Midlands Police, Aston Villa and UEFA throughout the day,” the Birmingham membership mentioned in an announcement on Friday.
The Warsaw membership had been upset that native officers who licence all stadium occasions required the ticket allocation be decreased from 1,700 to 1,000 in response to dysfunction by Legia followers at an October 5 recreation towards AZ Alkmaar within the Netherlands.
In Friday’s assertion, Villa mentioned Legia Warsaw had been knowledgeable of the ticket allocation particulars 4 weeks earlier than the match, including that the Polish crew’s officers had refused to substantiate if they might settle for their allocation till 4pm on Thursday.
“This is in stark contrast to normal UEFA operational procedures,” Villa’s assertion mentioned.
The Polish membership’s officers confirmed at 4pm that they might settle for the allocation after which had been handed the tickets after they arrived at Villa Park at 6:16pm, Villa mentioned.
Legia Warsaw didn’t instantly touch upon Aston Villa’s assertion on Friday. On Thursday evening, they blamed Villa for “refusing to allocate tickets to away fans”.
West Midlands Police mentioned their investigation will embody figuring out why the tickets weren’t distributed and they’ll pursue expenses towards these arrested after 4 officers, a police canine and horse had been injured in what they described as “planned violence” by the away followers.
“The disorder that we encountered last night was the most severe that a lot of us have ever seen,” Assistant Chief Constable Damian Barratt instructed Discuss Sport radio.
“It was undoubtedly, as I say, instigated as a result of this issue related to ticket allocation,” he continued.
“That’s something I’ll be taking up with football authorities and UEFA in particular. I will be expecting some strong decisions on their part.”
Villa gained the sport 2-1. The away followers part of the stadium was empty.
UEFA mentioned it “strongly condemns the unacceptable violence” and was “in the process of gathering all official reports from the game before deciding on potential next steps. We have no further information or other comment to make at this stage.”
Barratt described “enormous hostility” among the many away followers, a few of whom began fires and threw flares. Police didn’t point out that their officers’ accidents had been critical.
“One officer’s fluorescent jacket caught fire after they were hit with a flare. Fortunately his jacket was removed quickly and he was not injured,” West Midlands Police mentioned in an announcement. “He was later taken to hospital with smoke inhalation after the smoke from the flare made it into his helmet.”
Many of the arrests had been for violent dysfunction, 4 for “possession of a knife/offensive weapon,” and 4 for assaulting emergency employees”, police mentioned.
Police confirmed on Friday that all the arrests had been of away followers “and we’ll be working hard to charge and remand those suspects where we can today”.
Chris Heck, Villa’s president of enterprise operations, mentioned the membership “will be making further representations to UEFA in order to ensure that other clubs and police forces across Europe are not exposed to similar serious safety risks at the hands of Legia Warsaw”.
Legia followers had been additionally concerned in violent clashes with police throughout a recreation at Leicester in 2021.
