Disclosed: Uefa security adviser resigned and expressed concern in February Uefa
There were serious concerns about Uefa’s security and safety department earlier this year, when the English security expert, with decades of experience, left his role as an adviser to the governing body of European football.
Steve Frosdick, originally a metropolitan police officer, has dedicated his career to safety in stadiums in British and European football since the 1990s and holds a number of advanced professional qualifications. In February, he resigned from Uefa’s advisory service after 11 years in which he was employed to improve its expertise, incident monitoring and development and training programs.
He is said to have become seriously dissatisfied with the management of the department, which has been headed by Željko Pavlica since last year, a close friend of Uefa President Aleksandar Čeferin. Frosdick allegedly believed Uefa’s professionalism, expertise and development were being undermined, so he rejected a proposal to revise the contract, which would reduce his role.
Frosdick’s resignation and criticism came less than four months before two security events hit Uefa at the end of the season: the Europa League final, where Rangers fans complained that there was no water in the heat of Seville, and the terrible chaos he suffered. Liverpool. and Real Madrid fans at the Champions League final in Paris.
The revelation of Frosdick’s departure will raise concerns about Uefa’s security operations and the perceived cronyism in the appointment of Pavlica, which Uefa rejects. The confidence of Liverpool fans Spirit of Shanklyrepresenting fans who have suffered from excessive delays, police brutality and violent attacks in Paris but have been formally accused by Uefa of trouble, has again called for a fully independent investigation.
The Security and Protection Department is responsible for the safe conduct of Uefa matches, including the finals, and plays a leading role in efforts to strengthen good security practices in European football. Pavlica, the former top security guard in his native Slovenia, was appointed head of the department last year after the retirement of former four-year-old department head Kenny Scott after February 2021. Scott was a 30-year-old officer in the Strathclyde Police until the rank of chief supervisor, then from 2007 to 2010 he was head of security at Rangers, and in 2017 he joined Uefa full-time.
Čeferin, a lawyer in Slovenia, and Pavlica, a former senior security guard of Janez Drnovšek when he was president of Yugoslavia and Slovenia, supposed to be friends for decades. In 2018, Čeferin was the best man at Pavlica’s wedding to Brigita, a former Olympic athlete for Slovenia. Shortly after Čeferin won the election for president of the Football Association of Slovenia in 2011, Pavlica got his first job in football, where he worked in the Association as a security guard.
Uefa denied the chronicity of his promotion to head of the security and protection department and emphasized that in 2014 Pavlica transferred from Slovenian football to work in the pan-European confederation. It was an external, part-time role. Two months after Ceferin won the Uefa presidential election in September 2016, Pavlica was promoted to a permanent role at Uefa as a security adviser.
A Uefa spokesman said that Pavlica was “a well-respected name in the security business” and in football, “he had excellent security and safety records in the Slovenian national team and has served Uefa very well for more than eight years”. He was considered a “natural successor” at the head of the department, a spokesman said, as he had worked with Scott, including in UEFA’s club and national team competitions.
The vacancy for the head of the department was not announced externally, nor was a comparative assessment of Pavlica’s suitability for a very high European security role carried out. The spokesman explained that Uefa can directly appoint appointments when the “internal solution is obvious”, that Pavlica’s promotion was part of “succession plans” and external assessments are not mandatory in Uefa’s rules.
Frosdick was heavily involved as a consultant to UEFA’s training and development programs and its incident monitoring system, which wanted to learn detailed lessons from matches where safety was compromised and improve best practices. It is understood that he was invited to a farewell presentation on 18 February in a video meeting with Uefa colleagues and is expected to highlight criticism, including the alleged decline in professionalism. Frosdick declined to comment.
Uefa claims that its expertise has improved since Pavlica’s appointment, has not been undermined, as it has hired proven security and protection experts, continued training programs despite the pandemic and is working to improve incident monitoring. However, a spokesman confirmed that his stadium and security strategy program, which has been running since 2017, has not yet been renewed since it was completed last year. UEFA’s description of the 2017-21 program, which is still on its websitehe said he was “driven by Uefa ‘s efforts to protect itself from risks and incidents”.
Asked why the program is not currently being implemented, the spokesman said the pandemic made it impossible to implement a new strategy: “The next edition of the program is currently under development and must be approved by UEFA’s Stadium and Security Committee at one of their next meetings. . “
Joe Blott, president of the Spirit of Shankly, highlighted the demand for a completely independent inquiry into the independence of the review, which Uefa released two days after the final. Uefa has appointed Portuguese politician Tiago Brandã Rodrigues as president, working closely with Tiago Craveiro, the former executive director of the Portuguese Football Association and a senior adviser to UEFA’s Ceferino.
“Liverpool fans had a horrible experience in Paris and we are outraged that Uefa immediately, falsely accused us,” Blott said. “Now it’s really disturbing to learn about the issues of chronicle, professionalism and culture in Uefa’s security department, so we need a completely independent investigation, including Uefa itself and its matches.”
Asked about the events in Paris, especially the apparently negative perception of Liverpool fans as the cause of the problems before the match, a Uefa spokesman said: “Due to the ongoing independent investigation, Uefa will not comment or reveal any details on this matter. “