William Gaillard

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William Gaillard is the director of communications and Public Affairs for Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). He is also the Senior Advisor to the President of UEFA Michel Platini.

He came to wide prominence following the condemnation that UEFA suffered in the wake of the 2007 Champions League Final.

1 Before UEFA
2 His role within UEFA
3 2007 Champions League Final
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Before UEFA

In addition to his career at UEFA, he has also been Director of Corporate Communication for the International Air Transport Association and the UN International Drug Control Program.

His role within UEFA

William Gaillard is the Senior Adviser to the UEFA President Michel Platini as well as the UEFA's Director of Communication and Public Affairs. He advises the UEFA President on political issues and oversees all external communications.

Gaillard heads UEFA's Communications and Public Affairs Division, which is responsible for all activities involving UEFA's relations with the media, as well as for the production of UEFA's various publications and reports and the UEFA charity portfolio. ^[1]

William Gaillard has been highly visible since joining UEFA; indeed, he is perhaps the most prominent of UEFA's senior officials, along with President Michel Platini.

Gaillard has been highly active in anti-racism work within football, coming to prominence in England following a game in 2004 against Spain.^[2]

2007 Champions League Final

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At the 2007 UEFA Champions League Final trouble occurred after thousands of ticketless supporters stormed the turnstiles, meaning some 2000 fans with genuine tickets were denied entry. Gaillard said that the problems in Greece were typical of the behaviour of some Liverpool supporters during the past four years, branding them the worst in Europe; ^[3] Despite earlier saying that Liverpool supporters 'have a tradition of good behaviour'. ^[4] He also accused them of stealing tickets "out of the hands of children" and said "we know what happened in Athens and Liverpool fans were the cause of most of the trouble there".^[5] However, this has seen by several British MPs as UEFA attempting to avoid the blame for the disorganisation of the final, and they have been accused by Richard Caborn as entering into the blame game.^[6] ^[7] This also resulted in Gaillard being heavily criticised ^[8]^[9] by Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks.

British Sports Minister Richard Caborn, on June 5th 2007 met with UEFA president Michel Platini, after which the Frenchman was keen to distance himself from the Gaillard's accusations. ^[10] ^[11]