Apologies to anyone who's been looking at this blog in the last few days trying to keep updated with everything that was going on in Athens.
Technical problems while I was out there meant I was unable to do so but I suppose in some ways it wasn't a bad thing because it's not always a good thing to have instant access to a computer when passions are running high.
Anyway, four days after the final and the fall-out from the shambles that preceded the game shows no sign of abating.

The thing that is irritating me most is the clowns who were nowhere near the Liverpool end the other night who have come to conclusions about what happened and even condemned people based on nothing but hearsay.
You expect nothing different from rival fans. Evertonians and Man Utd supporters are dining out on what happened as if it vindicates everything they've already said about us. Good luck to them, many of us would be doing the same if roles were reversed.
But maybe it'd be nice if just a few of them forgot the fact that it was Liverpool fans involved and analysed what actually happened without prejudice.
I'm not exaggerating when I say people could have died out there. As predicted on this blog a couple of weeks ago the sheer number of ticketless fans was always going to cause big problems and there was no surprise that UEFA washed their hands of any responsibility when things did go wrong.
And yet they were the people who selected a stadium with no turnstiles, one which they said was not built for football and one which, astonishingly, did not even have toilets.
They failed to live up to their responsibilities of ensuring the stadium at which their showpiece event would be held in had basic facilities and that is unforgivable.
Similarly, the Greek police who promised their Merseyside counterparts that they would be able to deal with ticketless fans trying to bunk in and would have no problem rooting out forgeries also failed to live up to their responsibilities.
The only thing is, I expected nothing else from either of these organisations so I was not really disappointed by them.
What did shock me was the way some, and I stress some, Liverpool fans behaved. The clowns who were stealing tickets from other fans are the lowest of the low.
What makes them believe they have a divine right to a ticket? They can't be ultra loyal Reds because if they were they would have been to at least one European away in the last 12 months and as such would have been guaranteed a final ticket.
Yet there they were snatching tickets off old fellas and kids, mugging lads from outside Liverpool who had managed to get hold of tickets.
It was sickening to see and it really was enough to make even the most committed Liverpudlian wonder why we bother.
But back to the experts, those who think they have all the answers despite having been no closer to the trouble than the press box at the Olympic Stadium.
Typically, Jeff Powell, was the worst offender. And let's not forget cuddly Jeff was an adviser to the Thatcher government when football hooliganism was at its worst in the 80s.
One of his quotes the day after the game was: "Liverpudlians are not the only supporters who believe that each and every one of them has a divine right to attend every game played by the team, but they are the most determined to exercise that impractical prerogative."
Imagine being desperate to see your team. Imagine being so desperate that you'd travel to a far, foreign land just hoping that your luck will be in and you might come across a tout who'll sell you a ticket for your monthly salary.
Jeff Powell never has these problems, of course. He swans into the press box at whatever ground he pleases and he thinks doing so gives him the right to pontificate on fans who get caught up in trouble which he hasn't even seen.
We shouldn't expect anything different from Powell, his hatred of football supporters in general has always been easy for all to see.
But you know you've got problems when even the likes of Patrick Barclay is missing the point.
Barclay, a sports writer who I have long believed to be one of Fleet Street's finest, usually gets things pretty much spot on. But on Athens he is so far from the truth it is almost ridiculous.
In his column in today's paper he says: "I met two of the victims in the departure lounge at Athens airport.
"They were a pleasant and civilised couple, fortyish, members of Roy Keane's prawn-sandwich brigade, I suppose, but true sports enthusiasts (his favourite clubs were Manchester United and Wasps), guests of Heineken with tickets to prove it. Unused tickets.
"They had got almost to the stadium entrance 45 minutes before kick-off after three times waiting to have their tickets scanned.
"And suddenly a cordon of police vehicles barred their way. They were told the stadium had been declared full.
"Those close to them who remonstrated vehemently were threatened by hitherto apologetic policemen and, at this stage, my friends headed back to central Athens.
"Although they accepted they had been cheated out of their big night out - despite the man's footballing allegiance, he had been looking forward to an English triumph - principally by those who had flourished forgeries or just relied on police panic in the face of a rush, they were scornful about UEFA's organisational negligence and that, too, was justified."
So, let's get this straight. A Manchester United fan heading into the Liverpool end for a game his club was not involved in was cheated out of place at the final?
Are you sure, Patrick?
You've got to the nub of the problem but you've somehow missed the point. In football terms, you've created your own chance only to put the ball over the bar from the goal-line.
Surely, the problem here is that there was ever a Man Utd fan with a ticket for the Liverpool end. He had absolutely no right to be there. But his membership of the prawn sandwich brigade had won him a ticket as UEFA rates corporatism as much more important than the needs of genuine fans.
What is the difference between someone beating the system by bunking in or using a forged ticket and someone who uses the system by virtue of their wealth?
Only in a country where the class system is still so deeply entrenched could those who do the former be castigated and those who do the latter be lauded and given sympathy when the "ruffians" deny them their rightful place.
Come on Patrick, you're erudite enough to know the score here. Until UEFA place the needs of fans on their agenda scenes like the one I witnessed, but you didn't, in Athens will never be far away, particularly when big British clubs are involved.
No-one comes away from Athens blameless.
Not the fans who bunked in or stole tickets.
Not the riot police who battered fans with genuine tickets after failing in their duty to stop those with forgeries from getting in.
Not Liverpool Football Club who failed to get enough tickets into the right hands despite their pitiful allocation.
And certainly not UEFA who showed their usual indifference to fans and almost paid a terrible, terrible price.
Those of us who were there know just how close we came to things going badly wrong. We don't want to hear people castigating us based on nothing but hearsay, we don't want to hear bigwigs saying lessons will be learned.
What we want is for everyone who failed on Wednesday night to take responsibility for their failings and to do something about it.
If this doesn't happen then it will be only a matter of time before the shambles we saw in Athens will be repeated elsewhere. And maybe next time we won't be so lucky.

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