Lille blame Manchester United over crowd disturbances

LILLE, France, Feb 22 (Reuters) Lille officials have called for disciplinary action to be taken against Manchester United after blaming the English club for the crowd problems which marked Tuesday's Champions League match.

''This is very similar to what happened with Feyenoord fans during a UEFA Cup match at Nancy,'' Lille sport manager Xavier Thuillot told a news conference today.

''Manchester know what there is at stake after the disturbances provoked by their fans,'' Thuillot said. ''It's the reason why they were so swift to try and put the blame on us.'' Feyenoord were thrown out of the UEFA Cup after crowd disturbances suspended play for around 30 minutes during a group stage match at AS Nancy on Nov. 30.

Thuillot said the problem at Lens's Felix Bollaert stadium, where Lille play some of their Champions League games, had stemmed from the improper distribution of the match tickets allocated to the English Premier League leaders.

''We sent Manchester their lot of tickets several weeks ago, just like we always do for this kind of match,'' said Thuillot.

''But the English club distributed the tickets to their fans about a month ago and not on their arrival here like they should have. You give the tickets to the fans when they step out of the bus,'' he said.

''The result is that some fans managed to make high-quality fake tickets. People got access to the tribune allocated to Manchester fans. All the fakes were tickets allocated to Manchester,'' he said.

According to the police, about 1,500 faked tickets circulated before the match.

Manchester United said the tickets were sent out 11 days before the match as usual, or were available for collection from Feb. 1.

''We're not going to say anything until an investigation has taken place,'' a club spokeswoman said.

''We're compiling a report which we'll send to UEFA. It will include accounts from all parties -- from the fans, from the FA, from the police.'' Visiting fans were pushed towards a high perimeter fence at the stadium, with several having to be lifted over the barriers to safety.

Riot police intervened with truncheons and sprayed tear gas as supporters tried to climb the fence.

The match, watched by a 41,000 crowd, was moved to Lens because Lille's ground does not meet UEFA requirements.

UEFA will discuss the incident at its next ordinary meeting on March 22.

REUTERS PM PM2055