Liverpool Supporters Group Appeal To Club Over Champions League Decision
Reds fans traveling for the Champions League clash with Bayern Munich will need to make an extra stop.
There are few matchups in the first knockout round of the Champions League more anticipated than last year’s finalists Liverpool taking on German giants, Bayern Munich. Although the Reds will welcome the Bavarians to Anfield the kick off the heavyweight affair, the deciding second leg will be played at the formidable Allianz Arena in Munich.
The Anfield faithful, per usual, are expected to show up in force on March 13, in what will most assuredly be a high-octane affair, in the stands as well as on the pitch. However, the Liverpool ECHO has reported that some supporter groups are unhappy at an announcement the club have made that 250 of the 3,800 tickets made available to away fans will be selected at random to be picked up at one of two locations in Munich on the day of the match.
The measure is in place to discourage ticket hawking but has come under criticism by Spirit of Shankly and Spion Kop 1906 as placing undue burden on innocent fans looking to enjoy the lead up to the match
In a joint statement, the two groups said: “We understand that LFC perceive the secondary ticket market to be an issue, but these measures not only penalise genuine supporters who simply want to enjoy supporting their team but do little to address those issues.
“For fixtures like Bayern Munich, supporters will travel into the city throughout the day, by rail and air.
”Then being asked to collect your ticket impacts on enjoying your day, the pre-match build up and meeting up with friends. The club should be considering the impact that such decisions have on loyal supporters.
“To use the example of our recent fixture in Naples, travelling supporters were asked to make their way to the ground some four to five hours before kick off. Then they were kept in the ground for another hour and then another hour was spent being bused back to the city.
“Asking supporters to then take another one or two hours out of their day to collect a ticket is completely unfair. These same supporters will have spent considerable sums to not just support their side in Munich but across Europe this season and in previous seasons.
“We’ve previously raised this issue with LFC and asked that they set up a working group to involve travelling fans to discuss this issue and others. This was even agreed by senior club officials, but has not yet been enacted properly.
“We’d like to understand what LFC wish to achieve by doing this, and we believe that working together we can find solutions that work for all. We ask that LFC reconsider this and look at proper supporter consultation before pressing on.”
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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