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UEFA MAY CAP AWAY TICKETS PRICES IN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

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UEFA have received complaints from several European giants over the cost of away tickets. They are now looking to cap the prices.

The proposal to do so will be discussed in May.

According to Sky Sports, UEFA will soon cap away tickets prices in the Champions League and Europa League. The decision was made following complaints from the likes of Liverpool and Bayern Munich regarding away ticket prices in the Champions League last season.

Spanish publication, Tribuna, reports that a lot of Bayern fans boycotted the match against Anderlecht in November 2017 due to the €100 price tag put on away tickets by the Belgian side. Liverpool supporters had to pay three times as much as local fans to watch Liverpool’s game against Porto. This year Liverpool have urged Porto to reduce prices for away tickets and the Portuguese side did so, lowering the price from £73 to £52.

However, this term not all clubs have learned the lesson. Manchester Citysupporters are paying £60 for their Champions League away game against Tottenham, which is twice as much as they paid for the Premier League clash against Spurs.

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Barca have also been involved in the Champions League ticket prices scandal not long ago. Barcelona are charging Man United fans for €120 for the Camp Nou ticket. Which is reported to be the most expensive ticket in the English club’s history outside of a final. In response, United decided to increase the cost of tickets given to Barcelona supporters at Old Trafford to €120 and use the difference to subsidise ticket prices for travellers to Camp Nou down to £75.

This decision in its turn lead to Barcelona reducing the cost of official club trip to Manchester from €250 to €210 to compensate for United increasing ticket price, reports ESPN correspondent Sam Marsden.

Cost includes chartered flight and transport to and from the stadium but not the ticket itself.

As for Camp Nou prices, Barcelona is refusing to reduce these, as they are equal both for the home and away supporters, i.e. Barca fans are charged the same €120 that produced United’s outrage.

According to the ECA general secretary Michele Centenar, several clubs discussed the issue on Monday and the proposal on away tickets price cap would go to the next UEFA club competitions committee on May 14.

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ECA vice-chairman and former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar said: “Speaking as a former player, we want vocal fans at games and most of the time that’s the support that travels to domestic away games, too.

“We have fans who watch on TV all around the world but I think it’s important that we keep football affordable for local fans so they can travel at home and abroad.”

 

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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