Legia Warsaw fined and fans banned from five away matches after Aston Villa crowd trouble

May 28, 2024

Legia Warsaw have been fined €100,000 (£86,000) and banned from selling away tickets to supporters for their next five UEFA competition matches following the crowd trouble that marred the Europa Conference League game with Aston Villa last month.

Legia supporters were barred from entering Villa Park ahead of the game on November 30 following what West Midlands Police described as “disgusting and highly dangerous scenes” outside of the stadium.

West Midlands Police made 46 arrests for a variety of offences, including violent disorder and assaulting police officers. It was later confirmed that one police officer’s jacket caught fire after they were hit with a flare. The officer was taken to hospital with smoke inhalation but was not seriously injured.

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Four police officers injured and 46 men charged after trouble outside Villa Park

The UEFA Control, Ethics and Disciplinary Body (CEDB) have now confirmed the punishment for a range of charges including “crowd disturbances, acts of damage, throwing of objects and lighting of fireworks.”

The Polish side have also been ordered to pay Villa for the damage caused in the incidents.

A statement read: “The CEDB has decided to fine Legia Warszawa €100,000 and to ban Legia Warszawa from selling tickets to its away supporters for its next five (5) UEFA competition matches, for crowd disturbances, acts of damage, throwing of objects and lighting of fireworks.

It also ordered Legia “to contact Aston Villa FC within 30 days for the settlement of the damages caused by its supporters, i.e. for the broken high fences and the broken lighting pole.”

A number of arrests were made (James Baylis – AMA/Getty Images)

A statement from West Midlands Police on the night of the game read: “We were faced with disgusting and highly dangerous scenes as trouble flared ahead of the fixture between Aston Villa and Legia Warsaw. We had a significant policing presence in place because of safety concerns. This stemmed from visiting fans having been involved in previous match day disorder.

“Tonight’s disorder is believed to have sparked when tickets were not distributed by the away club to supporters outside the ground, as had been anticipated.

“During the disorder, four officers were injured — with one taken to hospital — along with two police horses and two police dogs as missiles including flares were thrown towards them. Thankfully their injuries are not believed to be serious.

“Of the suspects, 41 of those were arrested for violent disorder, four for possession of a knife/offensive weapon, and four for assaulting emergency workers. All of those arrested are away fans, and we’ll be working hard to charge and remand those suspects where we can today.”

Legia’s ticket allocation for the fixture was reduced due to concerns after previous incidents of crowd trouble.

They were fined €15,000 by UEFA and away supporters were banned from attending their Europa League group stage fixture against HSK Zrinjski Mostar following crowd disturbances at October’s match against AZ Alkmaar.

Legia released a statement 30 minutes before kick off claiming Villa’s decision to reduce their away allocation had “unnecessarily exacerbated the atmosphere”. They claim their Villa Park allocation was reduced to 890, while Villa claim it was 1,002.

UEFA regulations state home clubs must make at least five per cent of their stadium capacity available exclusively to visiting supporters.

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(Top photo: David Davies/PA Images via Getty Images)

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