Four officers injured, 39 arrested in clashes before Aston Villa-Warsaw game

A total of 39 arrests were made and four police officers were injured following violence outside Villa Park ahead of Aston Villa’s Europa Conference League match with Legia Warsaw on Thursday, police said. West Midlands at ESPN.

Police were hit by missiles thrown by fans, videos posted on social media show. West Midlands Police told ESPN that a police officer was taken to hospital, while two police horses and two police dogs were also injured.

Legia Warsaw said Aston Villa had given the Polish club a lower allocation of tickets than they were entitled to under UEFA regulations.

Police refused entry to traveling fans after the disturbance, leaving the stand empty. Aston Villa won the match 2-1.

“Instead of defusing potential pre-match tensions, the restrictive measures taken by Aston Villa FC as host club are unnecessarily exacerbating the atmosphere. In our view, such measures are counterproductive and unjustified,” Legia Warsaw said in a translated statement.

ESPN has contacted Aston Villa for comment.

West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said he hoped UEFA would now “move quickly to take strong action”.

UEFA told ESPN in a statement on Friday: “UEFA strongly condemns the unacceptable violence that occurred around the Aston Villa v Legia Warsaw match.

“UEFA is in the process of collating all official reports from the match before deciding on potential next steps.”

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.