Barcelona Pricing Policy a Joke

Liverpool supporters’ elation at making it to yet another Champions League semi-final has been overshadowed by the news that tickets for away fans, who travel to Barcelona, will cost €119.

On Thursday, 18 April, Liverpool FC announced that they will charge a reciprocal amount for travelling Barcelona supporters in the return leg. The additional revenue the club receive in doing this is to be used to subsidise Reds fans’ tickets, reducing the cost by €31 to €88.

Spirit of Shankly understand why the club have done this, and appreciate the consideration shown for our support, but we are massively opposed to this type of arrangement.

The reduction comes at the expense of the travelling Barcelona supporters. In effect, fans are being ripped off to subsidise other fans being ripped off. Two wrongs do not make a right.

This ‘compromise’ has happened before in this competition, not involving LFC until now, and we believe the club were opposed to it. It is therefore disappointing that this is the course of action they have decided to take.

SOS are aware that a price cap in Europe is to be introduced, and we will wait for details before commenting further. We do believe, however, that as a minimum this should reflect the current price of away tickets in the Premier League of £30.

The subsidised cost of tickets for Camp Nou is still astronomical, and at a time of the season when fans need to find money to renew their season tickets on top of travelling for Premier League games.

Success comes with expense, but that does not have to mean extortion – Barcelona’s pricing structure for this stage of the Champions League is an elitist joke. We ask that LFC, in future, are at the forefront of speaking up for the fans for a fairer price policy

Match going supporters are the soul of the game. With more money in football than ever before, and record profits announced, it is time this is shared more equally with those on the terraces.