European football governing body, UEFA has charged Arsenal and Cologne for the crowd problems experienced during their Europa League clash at the Emirates stadium on Thursday.
Koln were slammed with four charges, while the Gunners received a one-count charge for blocking stairways.
Arsene Wenger’s men ran out 3-1 winners over Koln, in a game that was delayed for at least an hour, after coming from behind thanks to goals from Sead Kolasinac, Alexis Sanchez and Hector Bellerin.
20000 Koln fans turned up at the Emirates, despite just 3000 tickets issued to the German side.
However, UEFA has now charged both clubs, with the case expected to be treated by the body’s Control, Ethics, and Disciplinary Body on September 21.
In a related development, the Arsenal have launched a review into the crowd incident that occurred with fans of visitors, Koln at the Emirates.
“We are now undertaking a full review to assess the events which occurred inside and outside our stadium,” a statement by the club read.
“The safety of everyone in and around Emirates Stadium is always our paramount consideration. We have a sophisticated control room at the stadium, in which our matchday security team work closely with colleagues from the Metropolitan Police, London Fire Service and the London Ambulance Service.
“Unfortunately there were clearly many Cologne supporters in Arsenal sections of the stadium. They obtained their tickets illegally, most likely via ticket touts.
“We continue to work hard to try to eradicate ticket touts and would urge all supporters not to sell or buy tickets from touts. Any tickets found that have been sold or purchased illegally will be traced back to the original purchaser who will have their membership cancelled and the appropriate action taken.”
Five arrests were made Thursday evening, and Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger says he thought the game would be postponed.
“Do we move it to Tuesday and play Thursday? It was all kind of speculations you know that we had to analyse and see how we can deal with the situation,” Wenger said, as per the BBC.
“But in the end at some stage I thought they would not play the game, because I can’t see the police taking any risk.
“We live in a society of 100% security and I thought they would never take a gamble to play this game when I saw the images around the stadium. But I must say our supporters dealt well with the situation as well and there was no aggravation.”
Cologne’s manager, Peter Stoger refused to answer questions about the issue.
