Henry Winter in the Telegraph:
Manchester United have now compiled their damning report on the behaviour of French police in Lens, drawing on 400 eye-witness accounts and video footage from mobile phones of police tear-gassing English fans, some of whom were being crushed into a fence.
The weighty report will be delivered by courier to Uefa early next week, with the expected result that Lille are fined for inadequate stewarding, ordered to play Champions League ties in a more suitable arena and that French grounds tear down their fences.
United have been inundated with e-mails from those who suffered at the hands of the French police, who reacted to over-crowding in the visitors' end with tear-gas and batons. In evidence to Uefa, United fans will also claim they were tear-gassed while trying to enter Stade Felix-Bolleart and again when leaving Lille's temporary home.
Uefa are particularly investigating whether police over-reacted to the scene of fans trying to climb over the fence, mistaking a safety issue (the crushing) for a security problem. Yet it is also incidents outside Felix-Bolleart that require scrutiny, starting with the treatment of fans queuing to get into this congested section.
As the lines built, the police, according to United fans, targeted supporters with tear-gas. "They were firing their extinguishers - not like the little pepper-sprays they have in England - at point-blank range into people's faces,'' added the fan in his statement to Uefa.
"My wife called for me to come and help with a United fan who was on his knees about 20 yards from the entrance. There was a woman struggling to lift him, he was holding his face. It looked like he had been exposed to a serious amount of tear-gas.
"I grabbed hold of him. Everyone was shouting and screaming. I'd never seen chaos like this before. As I lifted this guy with my wife and the other woman, a police officer came running over with his canister and sprayed tear-gas right into my face from about two yards away. All I was doing was picking an injured man up.
"We got him up and ran off to where all the coaches were parked. Everyone was in agony holding their faces. There were grown men, big lads, on their hands and knees clutching their faces screaming. I quickly clocked an English coach with a driver on it. I made him open the door and asked for some water. Unbelievably he actually started charging us a euro for a bottle.
"I started passing bottles out, everyone was helping each other. We reluctantly realised we weren't getting in to the game; but people were getting crushed inside so it wasn't worth it, we'd just get to a pub and watch what was left of the match.''
While Uefa assess the case and the appropriate punishments, the British Government should also consider their own reaction. If thousands of English tourists had been as abused, it would have sparked a major diplomatic incident. The Government must realise that football fans have rights - and votes.