Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has reacted to Uefa's claims that the club's fans are the worst-behaved in Europe. The American said Uefa spokesman William Gaillard "doesn't know what he's talking about".
Uefa president Michel Platini is to present a report to British Sports Minister Richard Caborn in Brussels today which is expected to criticise Liverpool fans and include a dossier of 25 incidents involving their supporters in the last four years.
Much of the criticism surrounds the conduct of Liverpool fans in Athens before the Champions League final last month, where fans without tickets or with fakes were able to gain access to the stadium at the expense of genuine ticket-holders.
But Hicks lays the blame for the problems at Uefa's door, and asked to respond to Gaillard's comments about Liverpool fans, he said: "The guy from Uefa who said that doesn't know what he's talking about.
"Uefa did not handle this right at all. To give 17,000 tickets to the two teams, particularly knowing Liverpool are going to bring 40,000 fans, is insane.
"It's a classic case of a bureaucrat trying to take the pressure off himself. They didn't handle it right, they didn't have proper ticketing procedures and unfortunately there were counterfeit tickets.
"There were fans who paid their hard-earned money to get their tickets and they get to the stadium and are told there is no more room. Are they (the fans) mad? Sure they're mad."
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)