Police have charged 46 men after “serious disorder” from Legia Warsaw fans who attended Thursday’s night’s Europa Conference League match at Villa Park.
Missiles were thrown at police as Legia fans were held in a coach park near Villa Park ahead of their side’s fixture against Aston Villa, which the hosts won 2-1.
Villa have made an official complaint to UEFA regarding the behaviour of the Legia supporters.
The match did start on time but no Legia fans were allowed into the stadium ahead of kick-off. Legia accused Villa of reneging on their agreement regarding the away ticket allocation, but Villa said the decision was made over safety concerns.
A statement from West Midlands Police read: “We’ve charged 46 men over Thursday night’s violence outside Villa Park.
“Of those, 43 have been charged with a public order offence, while two have been charged with assaulting police officers and another has been charged with possession of a knife.
“This is after serious disorder outside the stadium during the Aston Villa vs Legia Warsaw game on Thursday night.
“Those charged are aged between 21 and 63, and around 40 are believed to be from Poland. A small number are believed to be UK residents.
“All apart from one of the men is due in court today. He has been bailed to appear at a later date.
“A special court has been set up at Birmingham magistrates and will begin hearing the cases this morning.
“We are continuing to review CCTV and body-worn video footage to identify further suspects in what was an appalling and violent public disorder.
“It is now known five officers suffered minor injuries in the disorder.
“Two of these were from West Midlands Police, two from West Mercia and one from Derbyshire. They are receiving support at this time.
“Two dogs from West Midlands Police and two horses from Thames Valley were injured and are recovering.”
“Det Supt Jim Munro, who is overseeing the criminal investigation, said: “Our investigation is very much continuing and we’ll be reviewing footage and speaking to witnesses over the coming days.
“To charge this number of people so soon after such a major disorder has taken a huge effort by staff who have been working around the clock. We’ve had a number of messages of thanks from the club and fans who were present on Thursday night and saw the policing operation first-hand, and we are really grateful for that support.”
During the match, Villa released a statement revealing requests to the Polish club before the tie for help in preventing ticketless fans from travelling went unanswered.
Villa said: “The UK safety authorities, UEFA and Aston Villa, communicated on November 2 that the ticket allocation for away fans for this fixture would be reduced to 1,002 on the advice of safety authorities as a result of previous large-scale disorder caused by Legia fans last month at AZ Alkmaar.
“A number of Dutch police officers were injured during that disorder. As a consequence, UEFA banned Legia supporters from travelling to Mostar for their game against HSK Zrinjski.
“In spite of numerous requests for cooperation from Legia Warsaw concerning their travelling supporters, especially in the last two days, no assistance on the serious safety matter of away fans attending Villa Park was forthcoming from the visiting club.
“The club has repeatedly, including [Thursday] morning, raised concerns in conjunction with UEFA and all the relevant authorities to Legia that ticketless away supporters were attempting to attend Villa Park.”
Villa said Legia fans “engaged in planned and systematic violent acts against West Midlands Police officers” about an hour before kick-off.
The club added: “Aston Villa strongly condemns the behaviour of those visiting supporters and would like to thank West Midlands Police for their professionalism in very difficult circumstances.”
The away section remained empty at kick-off
In its own pre-game statement, the Polish side accused Villa of restricting access to their fans in a move it called “counterproductive and baseless”.
It said senior executives, including the club’s owner, made the decision to boycott the game in response to the move.
The statement added the two clubs agreed an allocation of 1,700 tickets for away supporters on September 21 but Legia claimed that number was slashed by 50 per cent on November 20, adding Aston Villa “blatantly disregarded the prior agreements”.
As well as the violent clashes, Villa stewards also removed several people believed to be away supporters from the home stands while footage on social media appeared to show objects being thrown into the stadium from outside.
UEFA strongly condemned the violence and said it is gathering all official reports from the game before deciding on potential next steps.