Champions League fixtures: Fans facing ‘worrying’ trends in safety at matches

The practice of regional police forces banning away fans at some matches, particularly in France and Italy, has become more common in recent years.

In some cases where fans are allowed to travel, they are banned from visiting the centre of the host city – this was the case when Tottenham visited France’s Rennes in 2021.

“We understand that some fan bases can be harder to host than others, but banning away fans from traveling is not a response to any of this,” Evain added.

“It is really disappointing to see that there’s no progress in France and Italy. It’s an easy response to a complicated problem.

“Opening an away end and providing five percent of tickets to the away fans is part of Uefa’s rules, just like the size of the pitch or anything else. Travel bans are the public authorities’ way of saying saying, ‘Sorry, we are deciding not to respect that rule, and we are not capable of hosting the game properly’.

“If public authorities said something like ‘the roof is not safe, we can’t organise the game properly’, then the match would be played somewhere else.”

The Naples chief of police justified the decision to ban Frankfurt fans from travelling by citing “the high risks to public order and safety”, while Ajax said the Marseille authorities had told them that fans would not be allowed “into the city or the stadium on grounds of public safety and security”.