Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid: Mayor launches inquiry into why Champions League match was allowed to go ahead

Around 3,000 supporters travelled from Madrid for the 11 March fixture

Liverpool City Council have launched an official inquiry to ascertain whether there is a direct link between the staging of Atletico Madrid in a Champions League match at Anfield and the spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in the region.

The last-16 clash was played on 11 March, two days before elite football in England was suspended indefinitely due to the pandemic.

Liverpool were defeated 3-2 by Diego Simeone’s men in that second leg to secure their progress to the quarter-finals in front of 3,000 Atleti supporters who were allowed to travel from Madrid.

At that point, matches in the top two divisions in Spain were already being played behind closed doors while nurseries, schools and universities were shut.

The country had reported 1,646 cases of the virus, with 782 stemming from the capital. All public events involving more than 1,000 people were banned in Madrid given the escalation of the spread.

Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool has commissioned the city's new public health director, Matt Ashton to conduct an investigation into whether that game contributed to a rise in spread of Covid-19 in the city.

It had only six confirmed coronavirus cases when the European tie, played in front of 54,000 at Anfield, went ahead. Recent figures have 246 recorded deaths in Liverpool NHS hospitals from the virus.

“I have asked Matt Ashton and his team to conduct a full investigation into any potential link between that match and the situation with coronavirus in the city,” Anderson said.

“We want to come to a view as to whether that decision had an impact on the people of this city and I’ve asked Matt to work with the universities to see if the data can give us an indication of that.

“I said at the time that the fact that the Madrid fans were unable to attend matches in their home city, but could travel to a game in Liverpool, was absurd, but the government and Uefa decided the game should go ahead. We now want to find out what impact that had in the city.”

Atletico Madrid supporters at Anfield (AFP)

The decision to allow Atleti fans to travel despite the severe outbreak of coronavirus in Madrid was widely condemned at the time.

Ian Byrne, the Labour MP for West Derby, told The Independent: “The evidence was out there, but it wasn’t getting listened to. We weren’t listened to. I just found it utterly infuriating.”

“It didn’t make any sense that 3,000 Atletico fans could travel to Anfield at that time,” Jose Luis Martinez-Almeida, the Mayor of Madrid, told Spanish radio station Onda Cero.

“It was a mistake. Looking back with hindsight, of course, but I think even at that time there should have been more caution.

“From the day before the game the regional government and Madrid council had already adopted important measures on reducing large gatherings of people.”

On Monday, the UK’s deputy chief scientific advisor Angela McLean refused to deny the possibility that there was a link between the match and the spread of Covid-19 in Liverpool.

“I think it’ll be very interesting to see in the future, when all the science is done, what relationship there is between the viruses that have circulated in Liverpool and the viruses that have circulated in Spain.

“That’s certainly an interesting hypothesis you raise there.”

Neil Atkinson, host of The Anfield Wrap, who attended the game wrote a column for The Independent detailing why every fan that attended the game was let down by the people supposed to protect them.