KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Liverpool supporters have been identified as the worst behaved at European matches in a Uefa report.
The report, compiled by undercover police agents during the past four years, also accused Liverpool supporters of stealing tickets "out of the hands of children".
A Uefa spokesman added: "We know what happened in Athens and Liverpool fans were the cause of most of the trouble there."
Uefa and Liverpool have been at loggerheads over the circumstances that led to about 2000 fans with tickets for the Champions League final being locked out of the stadium and tear-gassed by Greek police when they tried to gain entry.
The Anfield club claims inadequate security, a meagre ticket allocation and the choice of an athletics venue were the principal causes of the disturbances. It had highlighted those concerns in a report to Uefa five days before the final.
Uefa's counter-argument is that thousands of ticketless fans who rushed the gates, gained access with forged tickets or stole from genuine ticket-holders were to blame for filling the Olympic Stadium beyond capacity and leaving the Greek authorities no option but to shut the gates early.
The spokesman said: "The incidents involving Liverpool fans have been well known to us before the trouble [in Athens].
"That was just the latest example. What other set of fans steal tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children?
"There have been 25 incidents involving Liverpool fans away from home since 2003 - most teams' supporters do not cause any trouble at all.
"You must ask yourself why at the same match, there was no trouble with the Milan fans."
Liverpool fans were held responsible for the disaster at the 1985 European Cup final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels when 39 mainly Italian fans died after a wall collapsed following a charge by the scouse fans.
The tragedy led to English clubs being banned from European competition for five years.
Phil Hammond, whose son Philip was among the 96 Liverpool supporters who died in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 and is now chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said: "My heart sank as I watched what was happening [in Athens]. After what happened in 1989, I couldn't believe Liverpool fans, of all people, could do such dangerous things. I feared people were going to get crushed and we were going to have another Hillsborough.
"It was disgusting. The people who stormed the stadium are the scum of the earth. They put at risk hundreds of lives and should be ashamed of themselves. I won't be following Liverpool on their future travels."
- REUTERS
