The fact that around 30,000 Eintracht Frankfurt supporters were present in the Camp Nou on Thursday evening is a thorn in the side of Barcelona’s leadership. Joan Laporta announced the day after the painful 2-3 defeat in the quarterfinals of the Europa League that international tickets for Barcelona’s home matches will now be registered. In this way they want to prevent an invasion of away fans as was the case on Thursday in the future.
Laporta gives in an interview with TV3 explanation about ticket sales for Thursday’s home match against Frankfurt. “We didn’t sell that many tickets to the Germans,” the Barcelona president refers to the 30,000 Frankfurt supporters who had entered the stadium. “37,747 tickets had been sold to our season ticket holders and many of them have come into the hands of German supporters. In addition, 34,400 tickets have been sold in free sale and most of those tickets have also gone to Germans.”
30,000 Eintracht Frankfurt fans marching through Barcelona on their way to the Camp Nou. All in white. What a sight. #SGE #FCBSGE pic.twitter.com/OXw6Vunm75
— Felix Tamsut (@ftamsut) April 14, 2022
As a result, Frankfurt fans flocked to the Camp Nou’s home zones in droves, much to the chagrin of Laporta and his associates. Such a scenario is a thing of the past as far as the Barcelona administration is concerned. “I can announce that tickets for European matches will be named from now on. A measure that we prefer not to introduce, because it is inconvenient for a large part of the well-meaning supporters. But unfortunately we have no choice, we simply don’t want this more common,” said Laporta.
How suddenly there were not 5,000 but 30,000 Eintracht fans in the Camp Nou
Read here how it was possible that so many German supporters were present in Barcelona.
Officially, Eintracht was awarded 5,000 tickets from UEFA for the quarterfinals. During the day it became clear that there were many more fans in the city and when the gates of the Camp Nou opened the Germans poured in in large numbers. In the end, at least 20,000 supporters of the visitors were present, but there may have been even more. It led to so much frustration among Barça supporters that part of the home crowd temporarily left the stadium halfway through.
According to Mundo Deportivo, which asked for a response from the club, Eintracht supporters have searched en masse for tickets. Tens of thousands of tickets were allegedly obtained through unofficial tour operators and resellers. The main cause of the massive support in the stadium for Eintracht seems to lie mainly with Barcelona itself, the Catalan newspaper also concluded. On April 8, the club asked season ticket holders in an official message to give up their places if they were unable to attend a match. In the LaLiga game against Sevilla (1-0), 22,000 seats remained empty, despite the game being sold out. ‘To earn extra money’ Barça therefore asked its season ticket holders to inform them in time if they would not be able to attend, so that the tickets could be sold again. At least 15,000 fans of Eintracht benefited from that call.
Enriq Masip, who is responsible for ticket sales at the Camp Nou and advisor to Laporta, said in a remarkable tweet during the game that he regretted the situation. “Everyone has the right to sell their tickets, but the reality makes seeing a Camp Nou with so many rival fans very, very sad…” Mundo Deportivo added to the tweet that his claim is incorrect, as passing on (season) tickets is not allowed under the regulations. “A few years ago, there were still severe penalties for resale of tickets,” the medium wrote.