Villa condemn Legia Warszawa fans for pre-match violence

Aston Villa have condemned the violence from Legia Warszawa fans that injured police officers before their Europa Conference League game at Villa Park. 

Missiles were thrown as the visiting supporters were held in the coach park near the stadium, which resulted in none of them being allowed in.

Villa and West Midlands Police both released statements before the game had finished, with the club revealing requests to their Polish opponents for help in preventing ticketless fans from travelling went unanswered. 

The Villans, who won 2-1 thanks to goals from Moussa Diaby and Alex Moreno, said: "Aston Villa Football Club can confirm no away fans were allowed into Villa Park on the advice of West Midlands Police following large-scale disorder outside the stadium caused by visiting supporters. 

"The UK safety authorities, UEFA and Aston Villa communicated on November 2 that the ticket allocation for away fans for this fixture would be reduced to 1,002 on the advice of safety authorities as a result of previous large-scale disorder caused by Legia fans last month at AZ Alkmaar. 

"A number of Dutch police officers were injured during that disorder. As a consequence, UEFA banned Legia supporters from travelling to Mostar for their game against HSK Zrinjski. 

"In spite of numerous requests for co-operation from Legia concerning their travelling supporters, especially in the last two days, no assistance on the serious safety matter of away fans attending Villa Park was forthcoming from the visiting club. 

"The club have repeatedly, including this morning, raised concerns in conjunction with UEFA and all the relevant authorities to Legia that ticketless away supporters were attempting to attend Villa Park."

Villa also said Legia fans "engaged in planned and systematic violent acts against West Midlands Police officers" about an hour before kick-off. 

Legia coach Kosta Runjaic refused to be drawn on the disorder in his post-match press conference. 

He said: "I think it's a different topic, it's not my business. 

"We represented Polish football in a good way, all other things outside the stadium I don't want to comment."