Klopp On Ticket Allocations For UCL Final: “It Is Absolutely Not Right”
The manager had his say on the role of money in finals and how the fans suffer as a result.
The ticket allotments and pricing for the Champions League final in Paris have been announced, and many fans are understandably frustrated at the availability of tickets for actual supporters.
Liverpool and Real Madrid supporters have been allocated just shy of 20,000 tickets each, accounting for a little more than 39,000 total tickets of the 75,000 available. Another 12,000 were made available to all fans via a public lottery, and the remaining 23,000 and change are reserved for UEFA and their corporate sponsors.
Liverpool supporters union Spirit of Shankly penned an open letter to UEFA and lambasted them for the greed on display and for making it so difficult for the average fan to have even a prayer of attending the final.
The subject is on nearly everyone’s minds right now, so it was no surprise that Jürgen Klopp was asked about it during his press conference today. His response was to emphatically agree with the sentiment of Spirit of Shankly and all those who are upset at the sway money and corporate interests hold over football’s governing bodies.
“I understand 100,000% where Spirit of Shankly is coming from,” said Klopp. “It is absolutely not right but it happens everywhere. It doesn’t make it better, just in this specific case you are not only paying more than last time for a ticket but you only get 50% of the tickets and the rest goes to people who pay thousands and thousands for the tickets. That’s how all the money is made.
“The atmosphere, 20,000 whites (Real Madrid fans) and 20,000 Reds are responsible for that. Do I like it? No. Will I change it? To talk about is right but you have to write about it too because most of us think the same.”
Klopp went farther than just agreeing with supporters. He also took some not-so-subtle digs at the blatant money grab that is Qatar hosting a World Cup and the general corruption of FIFA and UEFA.
“We will talk in a few months that we have a World Cup in Qatar. How that could have happened? Nobody who made that decision at that time is still in charge but the World Cup is still there. It’s about money. UEFA are not the saints of football, they never were.”
Source: liverpooloffside.sbnation.com
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