“Mechanisms failed”
The club argues with ARA that tickets could not be purchased from Germany, because the computer system detects the origin of the card or the IP of the purchase and cancels it, unless it is from a member. or club member. Institutional Vice President Maria Elena Fort explains that the club “did not sell tickets directly”, but admits that the mechanisms “have failed and we must apologize”. Following UEFA regulations, Barça sent the German club the 5,000 tickets corresponding to 5% of the Camp Nou’s capacity. Despite this, more than 25,000 German fans made the trip. It is not the first time that the fans of this club have moved more than 15,000 people on a trip, but in this case they did find tickets to areas for local fans. The presence of visiting fans mixed with locals generated some fights and that many members of Barça, tips, left their locality. The president, Joan Laporta, defined the show as “a shame”, and stated that they would study the facts to prevent it from happening again.
Due to the large presence of German fans in Barcelona, the club closed the sale of tickets at the Camp Nou box office last Wednesday to prevent the rival fans from buying them. The club put on sale for the party the more than 25,000 tickets corresponding to the members who this year took advantage of a year of leave of absence of the season ticket, to which were added the seats that the subscribers released free of charge before the party. A move the club approved last week to “maximize support for the team and generate new revenue.”
Available tickets, according to Fort, were sold online and “from minute zero” both IP addresses and German credit cards were blocked. The club is now investigating the “circuit” so that these tickets end up in the hands of Eintracht fans. One of the hypotheses is that ticket reseller companies buy tickets with Spanish credit cards and sell them to visiting fans, an explanation that fits with some of the versions told on ARA by Eintracht fans. “Barça have been working with official tour operators for years, but they have a reduced ticket package. We have to analyze what happened to the tickets online, who bought them and why they came to the Germans “, adds Fort. The club believes that in order to understand the scenes seen, it is necessary to study a number of aspects: from the role of tour operators to individual resales. Nor did it help at all that it was Easter, that the rival is the one that moves the most fans on the continent and that so many subscribers are still on leave after the pandemic. A perfect storm that shows the problems that the Camp Nou has been suffering from for years.
To prevent a similar situation from happening again in the future, Fort does not rule out that the club will force the tickets to be nominal, although he points out that all options will be studied, which warns that they can be “drastic”. In Germany, for example, if a subscriber does not use his card a certain number of matches, he can lose it. At Barça, a large bag of subscribers do not normally use the card or release it on match day.
Masip talks about selling tickets
Enric Masip, an adviser to President Laporta, said on Twitter: “Everyone has the right to sell their tickets, but the reality is that seeing a Camp Nou with so many fans of the rival is very unfortunate…” With this statement, Masip seemed to admit that some partners allow you to use your season ticket to rival fans in exchange for financial compensation.
