Football Debacle report leaves unanswered questions - Labour's City Centre Spokesperson Should Resign

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 1st Jul 2008

Labour's Cllr Pat Karney's Reckless Media Announcements Contributed to UEFA Match Chaos

Liberal Democrat Councillors in Manchester have welcomed a Council report into last month's staging of the UEFA cup final in Manchester but believe that some questions remained unanswered by the report. They have also called on Labour's City Centre Spokesperson to resign his position, following the revelation that a key turning point in the debacle was his pre-match announcement that ticketless fans were encouraged to visit, reversing the previous policy of discouraging ticketless fans from visiting in large numbers.

Manchester Lib Dem Leader Cllr Simon Ashley said:

"I have met senior Council Officers and told them we agree with some of the key recommendations in the report:

• Piccadilly is an unsuitable venue for a large event;

• there should be ticketed entry to control numbers;

• there should be better communication with city centre businesses and residents;

• during future large-scale events, we need better signage, more toilets, bins and better and quicker post-event street cleaning."

Cllr Ashley went on:

"However, I think the report fails to answer some key questions, including the issue of why there weren't more viewing screens made available throughout the City when number estimates kept increasing, to better disperse the crowd numbers.

"The Council also need to look at the decision making process - was it transparent and did the organising committee rely too much on intelligence and information received from Strathclyde Police and Glasgow Council?"

Cllr Ashley concluded:

"This report isn't perfect but is a good start. Manchester needs to learn the lessons of the Uefa final so that the people of Manchester can regain the confidence they have lost in its Council bidding for future events."

Lib Dem Deputy Leader Cllr Paul Shannon, who spoke on this issue at the recent top-level Executive Committee meeting, criticised the role of the ubiquitous Cllr Pat Karney, Labour's City Centre Spokesperson:

"The annex to the report, submitted by Manchester City Football Club, show that the decision to change the policy of only encouraging ticketed fans was taken out of MCFC's control, and that the message was then changed to encourage everyone to visit, including fans without tickets."

"It's clear that Cllr Pat Karney's media announcements the week before the game persuading fans without tickets to travel in numbers to Manchester were a real factor in the Authorities' losing control of events. We think Cllr Karney's reckless media pronouncements have caused real damage on this occasion and he should consider his position."

Ends...

A copy of the Manchester City Council investigation report is available:

http://www.manchester.gov.uk/downloads/UEFA_Cup_Final_14th_May_2008.pdf