Leeds United open top bus celebration: Minutes reveal club's move was backed by West Yorkshire Police and the EFL

For those gathered outside Elland Road after the club thrashed Charlton 4-0 in a behind-closed-doors game on the evening of July 22, the unexpected celebration was a unique chance to salute their heroes that will live long in the memory.

But for the tens of thousands of other Leeds United fans who obeyed the guidance from the club and the authorities to stay away because of fears their presence could contribute to the spread of coronavirus, it was a bitterly disappointing moment that rewarded those who had flouted the advice. The Leeds United Supporters Trust summed up the feelings of many after the game when they said “we feel that the use of such a potent symbol of celebration, the open-top bus, was a dreadful own goal by the club”.

Following the outcry, Leeds United said the bus was a contingency measure designed to assist with dispersing the crowd and the decision to use it had followed a meeting with a Safety Advisory Group made up of health and safety experts, as well as council officials.

The club said: “The safety group believed that a brief appearance from the players with the Championship trophy would help to signal an end to proceedings, encouraging fans to head home safely.”

Now details have been revealed of what happened in that Safety Advisory Group meeting the day before the game and led to the controversial decision after minutes of the meeting were released to The Yorkshire Post under Freedom of Information laws.

Here are the key facts the minutes reveal:

Leeds United and West Yorkshire Police jointly decided to deploy the bus

The minutes state that “the bus arrangement was supported by the members of [the] safety advisory group” but added “the final decision will be taken on the day” by a Leeds United safety officer and a West Yorkshire Police employee on whether it would be used. The names of both people have been redacted from the published document.

The minutes show the idea of having the bus available as a contingency measure as part of the club’s “proposed celebration plan” was outlined to the meeting by a Leeds United safety officer. The minutes say that the safety officer said the club did not “want a repeat of the Friday before when 5,500 people turned up” when United's promotion was confirmed after West Brom lost to Huddersfield.

The LUFC officer is minuted as adding: “By having an open bus situated at Elland Road the players can wave to the fans safely. There needs to be something to end the celebrations and encourage fans to leave.

“The bus would only be used if significant numbers of fans came to the ground.”

Police ‘fully agreed’ something was needed to end the event after earlier trouble

A West Yorkshire Police representative, one of three to attend the meeting, is minuted as saying they “fully agreed that there needed to be something to end the event, to encourage fans to leave” following trouble the previous weekend.

The police representative then said: “Messaging from the club should continue to try and prevent any kind of mass gathering.

“Resources were stretched over the preceding weekend at Elland Road on Friday and on Sunday in Millennium Square.

“There had been 20 arrests and 10 injuries, with one WPC seriously injured. There were indications that fans were intending to travel to Leeds from far afield to be there for the final game.”

On the night of the final match and subsequent bus appearance, there were a further four arrests for public order offences and one officer received a minor injury.

Leeds Council supported the decision - but weren’t involved in the final call

Leeds Council, who had several representatives at the SAG meeting, defended the use of the bus following the initial controversy.

The council said at the time the move had been effective as fans left within 40 minutes of the bus appearance finishing.

But the council says the minutes make clear that it had not made the ultimate decision on whether it was to be used.

The council’s FoI response accompanying the newly-released minutes states: “Leeds City Council was party to the SAG meeting where the contingency arrangement was considered, however the council was not party to the specific decision to put that arrangement into effect.”

The EFL were in attendance - and backed the plan

The meeting, which was held over a Skype call, was also attended by a representative of the English Football League.

The minutes state the EFL representative “confirmed he was supportive of plans and said LUFC could not have done a better job in terms of the communications to fans not to gather on Friday and Sunday. However as it was highly likely that fans would turn up some safe method of dealing with them had to be planned for.”

Bus was supposed to be kept secret from the public

The Leeds United safety officer is also minuted as saying: “The bus would be delivered to the club at 7.00am and hidden.”

However on the day, pictures of the bus were circulated on social media before the end of the game.

No mention of video footage

In their statement the day after the celebrations, the Leeds United Supporters Trust said the use of the open top bus “begs the question as to if this was as much about securing powerful video footage as anything safety related”.

The three pages of minutes make no mention of anything connected to video footage and instead solely focus on the bus being part of a contingency plan to be used as a way of dispersing the crowd.

Leeds United, West Yorkshire Police and the EFL all declined to comment further when approached by The Yorkshire Post.

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Thank you

James Mitchinson