Four police officers were hurt in a clash with Legia Warsaw supporters prior to their UEFA Conference League tie against Aston Villa on Thursday.
The Villans, through their official website, confirmed that the West Midlands Police advised them not to let the away fans into Villa Park, “following large-scale disorder”.
Aston Villa had initially allocated 1,002 tickets to Legia Warsaw fans, after a ‘disorder’ caused by the latter at AZ Alkmaar in October. Further violence involving the Polish club’s fans broke out in Birmingham yesterday and that saw them barred from entering the stadium.
It wasn’t just the fans, even Legia Warsaw staff were also stopped from entering Villa Park. That’s according to journalist Samuel Szczygielski, who told Meczyki.pl that the reactions were ‘brutal’.
“Legia employees were not allowed to enter the stadium and had to return to the hotel. It’s hard for me to describe what I saw. It was quite brutal from both the English fans and the police,” he said.
The 31-year-old has revealed he had family and friends in England to watch the European clash and was puzzled with the step taken by Aston Villa.
“For me this is a huge scandal. Even more so because the families of many players and fans who are with us all over the world came here,” he told TVP Sport.
“We are talking about a tolerant country… The guys said that they were taking the Poles out of the stands, so you can answer the question yourself what this is all about.
“If the Premier League boasts it’s the best league in the world, we give them as many tickets as they want, and our fans cannot enter the stadium, it is incomprehensible to me. This is not what football should look like if it is repeated that football is for the fans.
“A huge scandal, but apparently this country has more power. It’s just incomprehensible to me.
“My brother or my friends’ families, they all had to buy tickets, take time off work, leave their children and they are standing in front of the stadium, freezing. I don’t know who should stand up for all this, but this is not a normal situation for me. Such things cannot happen nowadays.”
