Joan Laporta: 'Tickets for European games from now on will be non-transferable'

FC Barcelona continue to analyse the reasons behind the presence of a great number of German Eintracht Frankfurt fans in the stands at Camp Nou beyond the 5,000 allocated to away teams according to UEFA rules. President Joan Laporta spoke again on Friday, as he did after the game on Thursday evening, to Barça TV and Catalan TV station TV3 to explain further events after analysing data related to ticket sales. 

Laporta reiterated his feelings, admitting "we feel really bad, it was shameful," before explaining in detail the figures, the origin and destination of the tickets, assuring that the Club "is not guilty in regards to events leading to the tickets ending up in the hands of German fans. However, we do assume the responsibility that falls to us. Whoever knows me is aware that I always assume responsibility and look for solutions. We do not want this to happen again at Barça and we will take action: the measures that I can announce and that we have adopted are that for international competition, tickets will be non-transferable."  

Rejection of anti-social behaviour and support to those affected 

The Club, furthermore, is deeply sorry for the tense atmosphere experienced by Barça members and fans due to improper behaviour by some German fans and it wishes to give its support to all those Barça fans who felt intimidated by the anti-social behaviour. 

Distribution of tickets 

With regards to figures, once analysed, president Laporta explained: 

1. "34,440 tickets were sold. Barça fans should know that we have those tickets because there are season tickets holders who have asked for a temporary suspension and we put those on sale. The Club put those tickets on sale with restrictions: they could not be bought by German credit cards or via German EPP. The Club did not sell tickets to German and established all the available restrictions as has been the case over the last six seasons. 
2.  "The tickets that we sold to the away team were in line with UEFA rules, 5,000 tickets. Those tickets were located at the top of the third tier. The 34,440 tickets are those below. 2,425 were UEFA inviations (UEFA rules also) and the attendance by season ticket holders was 37,746. In total, 79,468 people attended the game. 
3. "We insist that the 34,440 tickets that went on sale were tickets restricted to sale outside Germany. The Club did not sell tickets to German fans. Who bought those tickets, did so and passed them on to German fans, that is obvious." 
4. "The tickets that went on sale, for the first 24 hours, members were able to buy them at 50%, and after 24 hours they went on sale to the general public. These tickets, unfortunately, and contrary to the regulations, ended up in the hands of German fans." 
   
   
5. "In reference to the 37,000 members who attended the game, we found evidence that some of those member tickets also ended up in the hands of German fans. Here there are two elements that are contrary to regulations what we want to explain to members: 34,000 tickets in the third tier that ended up in German fans' hands were not due to Club, and also there was a number of season ticket seats, against regulations, that ended up in German hands." 

Measures and solutions  

President Laporta recognised that the "anger is greater because from the Club's point of view we have applied all the restrictions we could, we followed the rules yet behaviour we cannot tolerate, above all with those who bought the 34,000 tickets meant that they ended in the hands of German fans." To avoid a repeat, the president explained that the Club has no option but to take action "that we have never wanted to take because it is inconvenient for members and Barça fans who follow the rules, who are many and I thank you for coming on 14 April to support the team. However, we have no option but to adopt these measure. We will make tickets non-transferable, we will have to do it and I ask for your understanding so that what happened against Eintracht Frankfurt does not happen again." 

To conclude, the president made it clear again that he was "appalled by the image presented" and that he felt "ashamed as this should never have happened." Nevertheless, he highlighted "the desire of the Club to remedy this and take action. The Club is not to blame for people breaking the rules, we applied all the measures we could to avoid it but there are people who consider that they have to do it despite the damage to the Club and the fans and members who came to support the team at Camp Nou. Looking to the future the president asked for support for the team as "try to win the league."