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A UEFA-commissioned review about how Liverpool fans were treated outside the Champions League final is set to find the failings “almost led to a disaster”, it has been reported. Faults by European football’s governing body and French authorities failure to carry out a venue risk assessment are blamed for what happened, Sky News says.

Express.co.uk has not seen the report as it has not yet been published, but it is understood that French police will be criticised in the document for firing tear gas and pepper spray on concourses near turnstiles being used by Liverpool supporters.

This led to crushing happening around the security barriers at the Stade de France before the match against Real Madrid.

According to Sky News, the French authorities are set to be slated for deflecting responsibility, particularly around how it was falsely claimed that there were a lot of fans trying to get in to the ground without tickets or with fakes.

And it is believed that police are going to be criticised for not being proactive enough in intervening when locals – who tried to scramble over fences and jump the turnstiles – attacked fans.

They are also said to have been over-reliant on using teargas and pepper spray on fans who were not to blame for what was happening.

UEFA, as event owner, is said to have “primary responsibility” but it is believed that some commission members do not agree with the report’s conclusions.

It is understood that the report will also say the police and the French Football Federation (FFF) “bear responsibility” because they were supposed to ensure that the public were kept safe.

And there was apparently no “Plan B” that would have included a contingency plan with details of how stewards and police could have been redeployed to deal with crowd management issues.

The match kick-off was delayed for 37 minutes because the problems outside the stadium created access issues for distressed fans – especially disabled supporters and asthmatics who were struggling due to the police’s use of tear gas and pepper spray.

A “massive” bottleneck was created when The Reds fans were funnelled through a narrow gap and police fired tear gas into an area which was full of thousands of supporters.

The commission dismissed the French authorities attempts to blame fans that did not have tickets for the match on May 28 last year.

And it said supporters who arrived late were not a cause of the issues because the problems had started around three hours before the game was due to start.

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