Soccer

Uefa set to announce price cap on European away tickets

Man United fans recently charged €118 per ticket by Barcelona

FC Barcelona charged Manchester United supporters €118 for next month’s Champions League clash at the Camp Nou. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

Tue Mar 26 2019 - 16:25

The continent’s leading clubs and European football’s governing body Uefa are set to announce a cap on ticket prices for away fans in European club competitions.

A working group was set up last year by the European Club Association and Uefa following complaints from Bayern Munich and Liverpool fans about ticket prices at Anderlecht and Porto, respectively.

Many Bayern fans boycotted their game against Anderlecht in November 2017 when the Belgian side raised the cost of tickets to €100, while Liverpool objected to Porto charging their fans three times as much as local supporters for a Champions League game.

Lessons were clearly learned from the latter example, as Liverpool and Porto have bilaterally agreed to keep prices down for each others’ fans in their Champions League quarter-final next month, with Porto agreeing to reduce the cost of an away ticket from a planned £73 to £52.

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But there was no such cooperation between Barcelona and Manchester United, with the Premier League deciding to subsidise the €118 cost of an away ticket at the Nou Camp by charging Barca fans the same price at Old Trafford.

That type of tit-for-tat pricing, however, could become a thing of the past.

Speaking to reporters at the ECA general assembly in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the organisation’s general secretary Michele Centenaro said the matter was discussed by the clubs on Monday and “a proposal” would now go to the next Uefa club competitions committee on May 14th.

ECA vice-chairman Edwin Van Der Sar, the former Manchester United goalkeeper who is now chief executive of Ajax, 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.”

Sitting alongside Van Der Sar was former Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis, who now does the same job at AC Milan.

He agreed with his Ajax counterpart and said Europe should take a leaf out of English football’s book with its £30 cap on away tickets.

“The English experience with a cap on away tickets has been really positive,” said Gazidis.

“It was a very good step and was well received and embraced by our fans. That was a national issue but we’ve got to have it on our (European) agenda, too.”

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