Last summer I sat in a television studio in central Paris, ready to discuss the fiasco at the Champions League final the previous weekend, which I had attended as a Liverpool supporter. It was my final media appearance of an exhausting day and as a fifth set of makeup marinated into my skin under the sizzling refulgent lights the news presenter posed his first question to me: “Why is it so important to Liverpool fans to speak up about what happened?” The reason was that supporters who had attended the final sought to counter the narrative espoused by Uefa and the French authorities in the aftermath – that match-goers who had been sprayed with teargas by riot police, mugged by gangs of local youths and locked in perilous crushes outside the stadium as they attempted to attend European football’s showpiece event had brought the carnage upon themselves. After nine long months the independent panel commissioned by Uefa to investigate the disarray has released its report. The 158 pages of findings repeatedly highlight three key themes: Uefa comprehensively failed to ensure safety and security in its role as event organiser, the French authorities did not cooperate with one another to any kind of acceptable degree and there is no evidence that mass ticketlessness, ticket forgery or any other negative behaviour on the part of Liverpool fans contributed to what almost became a “mass fatality catastrophe”. The report vindicates everything Liverpool supporters have fought for since it became clear those in power were trying to shift blame on to fans, even before the match belatedly kicked off. It is a meticulous, accurate and at times stupefying piece of work that finds Uefa ultimately responsible. This document exists because fans organised themselves on the night and during the months after, conducting the type of high-quality communications campaign firms paid millions of pounds in consultancy fees could only dream of improving upon. As soon as the police began their brutal assault on innocent people at the Stade de France, supporters used social media to document what was happening in real time, then afterwards posted reams of audiovisual evidence online, disproving the idea that fans were at fault before the wheels of cover-up could be fully set in motion. In the months afterwards, they gave powerful testimony before the French senate, offered up harrowing accounts to news outlets and contributed to the Uefa inquiry in big numbers and good faith. My position as a journalist, regular Liverpool match-goer, French speaker and former Paris resident meant I was invited on to TV broadcasts in the UK and France in order to discuss what went wrong, who was responsible and what needed to happen to avoid similar chaos in future. I would have found the prospect of spending a week appearing on live TV in a foreign country using a second language immensely intimidating had I not been able to access the enormous wealth of evidence fans had published. Their work rendered explaining the fiasco straightforward, instilled a sympathetic view in the international press and public and meant those seeking to protect their reputations with mistruths were unable to do so. Growing up in Liverpool means having your worldview shaped by Hillsborough. The scale of social grief and searing sense of injustice forms an inherited trauma that even those of us not yet born on 15 April 1989 have ingrained into our DNA. Though personalities differ, we share a collective spirit defined by three constants: a distrust of authority, a desire to fight for truth and a relentless stubbornness in the face of adversity. The independent panel rightly found it “appalling” that Hillsborough was referenced with respect to the policing approach and said the view that Hillsborough was caused by hooliganism was “woefully inaccurate”, but it was the fans’ collective knowledge of the truth of the disaster that gave them the skills to avoid catastrophe on the night and hold those in power to account. The report notes “it is remarkable that no one lost their life” in Paris and found “the collective actions of Liverpool FC supporters” to be “instrumental in protecting vulnerable people and averting what might well have been more serious injuries and deaths”. Put simply, Liverpool fans saved the lives of those around them by behaving themselves, helping others through the crushing and keeping calm in the face of state-sanctioned police intimidation. Then they stood up for one another, took on the governing body of European football and the might of a foreign government, fought for the truth and won. A people bearing the scars of Hillsborough would never have settled for any less. The world now knows Uefa has Liverpool fans to thank for ensuring its showpiece football fixture did not end in mass death. The independent panel’s report has given Uefa a chance to change its ways. If the organisation doesn’t do so, football fans across Europe will never be safe in Uefa’s care.