Steven Gerrard last night joined Rick Parry, the Liverpool chief executive, in hitting back at Uefa after claims that the club’s supporters were the worst-behaved in Europe and blaming the governing body for the chaos that marred the Champions League final against AC Milan in Athens last month.

Parry expressed outrage yesterday at the comments from William Gaillard, Uefa’s director of communications, who reacted to widespread criticism of security arrangements at the final by blaming Liverpool fans for the trouble outside the ground in a document that will be presented to Richard Caborn, the Sports Minister, today.

Last night Uefa seemed to back away from further confrontation with the club. “The report draws up some proposals, not sanctions. There will be no disciplinary action taken against Liverpool,” a Uefa source said. “The report is more of a narrative on what happened from start to finish and proposes how to deal with it better in the future, such as better police cooperation and a better strategy.”

The comments will do little to pacify Parry, who believes that Gaillard was attempting to pass the buck. “The shortcomings in the management of the situation in Athens were apparent to anyone who was there,” he said. “These latest comments from Uefa should not deflect attention from that reality.

“To have a stadium with no counting system and no turnstiles is unforgivable for any standard of game, let alone a major final. We produced a report for Uefa a week beforehand predicting, sadly, all of the things that did go wrong.”

Gerrard was similarly upset by the slur on the reputation of Liverpool fans. “I had friends and family at the final and their opinion was that the organisation wasn’t good enough,” the captain said. “Maybe a minority of fans have let themselves down, but as far as I’m concerned the European Cup final has got to be in a bigger stadium with better organisation.”

— Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard signed new four-year contracts with Liverpool yesterday before departing with the England squad for Estonia today. The two home-grown players had agreed new deals in principle before the Champions League final on May 23. Gerrard’s wages will rise to approximately £120,000 a week.