Champions League pitch invader banned from games after ‘£250k Belarusian vlogger prank’
A man who tried to invade the pitch at the Champions League final at Wembley as part of a prank to win £250,000 from a Belarusian vlogger has been handed a three-year ban from UK football games.
Ukrainian Yevhenii Lubnenko, 29, was wearing a T-shirt with the vlogger’s name on it when stewards stopped him from getting on the turf less than three minutes after kick-off on Saturday, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard on Monday.
The Uber driver – who was unable to give a UK address, saying “I do not remember, I am here for a few days” – pleaded guilty to going on to the playing area at a football match contrary to Section 4 of the Football (Offences) Act 1991.
Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid on the pitch during the match. Pic: PA
Lubnenko, who had been in custody since Saturday’s match between Borussia Dortmund and Real Madrid, said the challenge had been set by a vlogger reportedly based in Moscow.
The vlogger, Mellstroy, had offered the cash to people who invaded the pitch while wearing a T-shirt with his name on it.
Photos from the game captured two intruders with Mellstroy written in black and white across their chests running onto the field.
District Judge Michael Snow told Lubnenko: “The real villain is the Russian who is offering around $300,000 in the UK to do what you regard as a prank. I cannot punish him because he is not here.
“You recognise that this was a major sporting event for the UK. It was an important club football match in Europe that takes place in any year. The eyes of Europeans and many people around the world are on the match and they want to watch the match uninterrupted.
“The players taking part in that match are taking part in an important match in their career.”
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Ticketless fans try to storm Wembley
The judge told Lubnenko that “your behaviour, you being one of three [people], may have affected their concentration in what was one of the most important matches of their career”.
Lubnenko was fined £1,000 which was cut to £660 as credit for his guilty plea, along with £85 costs and a £264 witness surcharge.
Judge Snow ruled the fine and costs were covered by his time in custody and Lubnenko was ordered to pay the surcharge.
Lubnenko, a Manchester City supporter, had told the court he had travelled to England to watch the match, and do some shopping or see the capital as he “had never been to London before”.
But the judge told him: “I appreciate that you did not manage it [to get on to the pitch]. You did not really come to watch the match because you would be kicked out before the game got going, so you came here for the money.”
Read more: Wembley security was an improvement – but lessons still to be learnt
The judge said the banning order means Lubnenko cannot attend any football matches in the UK for three years, warning him: “So don’t go, even if it is to see Manchester City.”
Lubnenko apologised “to everyone in the stadium and the players” saying he was “very sorry about what I tried to do”.
He said the banning order was “fair” and that being questioned in a police station was one of the worst days of his life, adding: “That was big punishment for me.”
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Lubnenko, who arrived in England on Friday and was due to leave on Monday, is set to fly out of the country within days to see relatives in Germany.
The Metropolitan Police earlier said that two others – David Carneckij, 28, and a 16-year-old boy – have also been accused of going on the playing area at a football match contrary to Section 4 of the Football (Offences) Act 1991.
The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is set to appear at Highbury Corner Youth Court on 24 June.
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The force said inquiries continue into two other people arrested in connection with the incident.
Police made 56 arrests around the game – most of which were for attempts to breach security.
The UK-US trade deal has been signed and is “done”, US President Donald Trump has said as he met Sir Keir Starmer at the G7 summit.
The US president told reporters in Canada: “We signed it, and it’s done. It’s a fair deal for both. It’ll produce a lot of jobs, a lot of income.”
Sir Keir said the document “implements” the deal to cut tariffs on cars and aerospace, describing it as a “really important agreement”.
“So this is a very good day for both of our countries – a real sign of strength,” the prime minister added.
Mr Trump added that the UK was “very well protected” against any future tariffs, saying: “You know why? Because I like them”.
However, he did not say whether levies on British steel exports to the US would be set to 0%, saying “we’re gonna let you have that information in a little while”.
Mr Trump also praised Sir Keir as a “great” prime minister, adding: “We’ve been talking about this deal for six years, and he’s done what they haven’t been able to do.”
He added: “We’re very longtime partners and allies and friends and we’ve become friends in a short period of time.
“He’s slightly more liberal than me to put it mildly… but we get along.”
Sir Keir added that “we make it work”.
As the pair exited a mountain lodge in the Canadian Rockies where the summit is being held, Mr Trump held up a physical copy of the trade agreement to show reporters.
Several leaves of paper fell from the binding, and Sir Keir quickly stooped to pick them up, saying: “A very important document.”
Sir Keir Starmer picks up paper from the UK-US trade deal after Donald Trump dropped it at the G7 summit. Pic: Reuters
The US president also appeared to mistakenly refer to a “trade agreement with the European Union” at one point as he stood alongside the British prime minister.
Mr Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs on countries in April. At the time, he announced 10% “reciprocal” rates on all UK exports – as well as separately announced 25% levies on cars and steel.
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In a joint televised phone call in May, Sir Keir and Mr Trump announced the UK and US had agreed on a trade deal – but added the details were being finalised.
Ahead of the G7 summit, the prime minister said he would meet Mr Trump for “one-on-one” talks, and added the agreement “really matters for the vital sectors that are safeguarded under our deal, and we’ve got to implement that”.
Whitehall officials tried to convince Michael Gove to go to court to cover up the grooming scandal in 2011, Sky News can reveal.
Dominic Cummings, who was working for Lord Gove at the time, has told Sky News that officials in the Department for Education (DfE) wanted to help efforts by Rotherham Council to stop a national newspaper from exposing the scandal.
In an interview with Sky News, Mr Cummings said that officials wanted a “total cover-up”.
Politics latest: Grooming gangs findings unveiled
The revelation shines a light on the institutional reluctance of some key officials in central government to publicly highlight the grooming gang scandal.
In 2011, Rotherham Council approached the Department for Education asking for help following inquiries by The Times. The paper’s then chief reporter, the late Andrew Norfolk, was asking about sexual abuse and trafficking of children in Rotherham.
The council went to Lord Gove’s Department for Education for help. Officials considered the request and then recommended to Lord Gove’s office that the minister back a judicial review which might, if successful, stop The Times publishing the story.
Lord Gove rejected the request on the advice of Mr Cummings. Sources have independently confirmed Mr Cummings’ account.
Education Secretary Michael Gove in 2011. Pic: PA
Mr Cummings told Sky News: “Officials came to me in the Department of Education and said: ‘There’s this Times journalist who wants to write the story about these gangs. The local authority wants to judicially review it and stop The Times publishing the story’.
“So I went to Michael Gove and said: ‘This council is trying to actually stop this and they’re going to use judicial review. You should tell the council that far from siding with the council to stop The Times you will write to the judge and hand over a whole bunch of documents and actually blow up the council’s JR (judicial review).’
“Some officials wanted a total cover-up and were on the side of the council…
“They wanted to help the local council do the cover-up and stop The Times’ reporting, but other officials, including in the DfE private office, said this is completely outrageous and we should blow it up. Gove did, the judicial review got blown up, Norfolk stories ran.”
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Grooming gangs victim speaks out
The judicial review wanted by officials would have asked a judge to decide about the lawfulness of The Times’ publication plans and the consequences that would flow from this information entering the public domain.
A second source told Sky News that the advice from officials was to side with Rotherham Council and its attempts to stop publication of details it did not want in the public domain.
One of the motivations cited for stopping publication would be to prevent the identities of abused children entering the public domain.
There was also a fear that publication could set back the existing attempts to halt the scandal, although incidents of abuse continued for many years after these cases.
Sources suggested that there is also a natural risk aversion amongst officials to publicity of this sort.
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Mr Cummings, who ran the Vote Leave Brexit campaign and was Boris Johnson’s right-hand man in Downing Street, has long pushed for a national inquiry into grooming gangs to expose failures at the heart of government.
He said the inquiry, announced today, “will be a total s**tshow for Whitehall because it will reveal how much Whitehall worked to try and cover up the whole thing.”
He also described Mr Johnson, with whom he has a long-standing animus, as a “moron’ for saying that money spent on inquiries into historic child sexual abuse had been “spaffed up the wall”.
Asked by Sky News political correspondent Liz Bates why he had not pushed for a public inquiry himself when he worked in Number 10 in 2019-20, Mr Cummings said Brexit and then COVID had taken precedence.
“There are a million things that I wanted to do but in 2019 we were dealing with the constitutional crisis,” he said.
The Department for Education and Rotherham Council have been approached for comment.
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