The Baroness Casey Review | UEFA Euro 2020 Final

If you work in the event industry, regardless of location, it is important to remain aware of international topics in relation to Crowd Safety and Security, specifically when things go wrong.

Having just been apart of one of the most significant events in the Middle East, we have more in the region on the horizon, including FIFA Qatar World Cup in November 2022, Formula 1 Grand Prix in November 2022, Ultimate Fighting Championship 281 in October 2022, and the NBA Games in October 2022, all in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Hopefully during the CV19 Pandemic, many people involved in events took the time to partake in CPD, afterall there was no better time. Now, with major events back on schedule, such as FIFA Women's World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023?, notable musicians embarking on world tours, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022, to name a few, we should all be better prepared for future events.

I am still surprised to find that many people within a Security and, or a Safety role in major events have yet to read or research literature post these high-profile tragedies, the aim to to continuously improve and learn from these findings and evaluate what we might be able to do better when we are next involved in another event.

• Manchester Arena bombing on 22nd May 2017 (Report).
• The Astroworld Crowd Crush on the 5th November 2021 (Report).
• The enclosed report on the Euro 2020 Final at Wembley Stadium on the 11th July 2021.
• Yaoundé stadium disaster (AFCON 2022 Crowd Crush in Cameroon) on January 24th 2022 (CNN).

Last week, Wembley Stadium suspended a firm supplying staff for the FA Cup final after a Sportsmail investigation exposed alarming security lapses.

Wembley said on Friday night (13th May 2022);

''We are taking these allegations extremely seriously as they do not meet the high standards that we expect from our stewarding contractors, we have already begun an investigation into the matter and we have suspended the relevant stewarding contractor pending the outcome of this investigation''.

Julian Knight MP, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, on Friday night said he would be writing to the FA to call for Baroness Casey to be brought back in to investigate.

Baroness Casey also compiled the report into the UEFA Euro 2020 Final, details of this can be found below, I have added the link to the PDF.

The UEFA Euro 2020 Final was a football match between England and Italy that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on 11 July 2021 to determine the winner of UEFA Euro 2020.

It was the 16th final of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial tournament contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA to decide the champions of Europe.

Originally scheduled for 12th July 2020, the match had been postponed along with the rest of the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

Thousands of England fans gathered at Wembley Stadium throughout the morning and afternoon, which prompted the police to urge anyone without tickets not to travel there.

Footage from two hours before the final showed a few ticketless fans fighting with stewards and police as they attempted to force their way past barriers to get into the stadium.

Groups of people managed to gain access to the stadium without tickets, eyewitness reports saying the number of illegal entries might be in the hundreds, a video below may align to this.

Large crowds also gathered in Leicester Square in Central London, throwing bottles and other objects, and Trafalgar Square, where a ticketed fan zone was set up.

As a result of the violence and disorder, a total of 86 people were arrested by police, 53 of which were made at Wembley Stadium for offences that included public order breaches, assault, drunk and disorderly conduct, and criminal damage.

Nineteen police officers were injured, including one who lost a tooth and another who suffered a broken hand, not to mention the injuries to stewards, security guards and workforce.

On 12 July 2021, a day after the final, The Football Association said it would conduct a full review into how people without tickets were able to breach security and gain access to Wembley Stadium for the final.

Four days later, two men were arrested on suspicion of stealing items that helped ticketless fans storm Wembley Stadium ahead of the final.

The behaviour of these individuals put the safety and security of thousands of law-abiding fans (not to mention the staff and police officers at Wembley) at risk.

On 29th July 2021, the Football Association (FA) commissioned Baroness Casey to undertake an Independent Review of the events surrounding the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Euro 2020 final at Wembley, in order to understand what happened and determine lessons so that there can be no repeat in the future.

The review period was very short - completing in under four months - and as such, this report is not exhaustive.

Nonetheless, it represents a significant body of research, with the Review having;

• Interviewed FA and Wembley staff, from stewards to the chief executive.
• Interviewed stakeholders representing key delivery partners, including the police and other emergency services, council staff and government officials.
• Analysed substantial documentary evidence relating to the preparation and delivery of the final, including over four thousand hours of CCTV footage.
• Completed a survey of more than 7,700 ticket holders at the final.
• Commissioned independent reports from experts and academics relating to crowd safety, football-related disorder and legislation, and social media.

This report sets out the findings and conclusions of that research and makes a series of recommendations.

The 2021 Casey Review in PDF can be found here.

The breakdown of the Wembley Stadium breach can be viewed here, a investigation by Sky News UK.

Regards,

Adam