Joan Laporta gave explanations about the ‘tide’ of Eintracht Frankfurt that invaded the Camp Nou

Joan Laporta, president of Barcelona, ​​admitted that “everything overflowed” in the control mechanisms in the sale of tickets and in the security of the second leg of the quarterfinals of the Europa League against Eintracht Frankfurt, which had the massive presence of German fans at the Camp Nou.

The head of the entity assured that of the more than 29 thousand tickets that were put on sale “organized groups and specialists in resale” caused the control mechanisms activated by the club to be “insufficient”. In addition, the club concluded that the attendance of Eintracht fans exceeded the forecasts of the security department, which chose to let them in to avoid “situations of tension that would have been extreme”.

“Everything spilled over. We understand that the club is not to blame, but it is the most responsible because we have to ensure that this does not happen again in the organization of the matches. The club did not sell tickets to the Germans.”Laporta explained at a press conference.

Meanwhile, the vice president of Barcelona’s marketing area, Juli Guiu, stated that of the 29,435 tickets that the club put on sale, it is estimated that more than 7,000 members bought them, with the usual discount, and possibly later they resold to German hobbyists.

To them must be added the tickets they purchased “unofficial agents and resale groups”, in addition to 500 ‘vip’ tickets that also went to the hands of German fans. Also, the club “work with estimation” that some 7,000 season ticket holders out of the 37,746 who attended the stadium sold their seats to Eintracht fans.

The club activated, as usual in European matches, a system to prevent the purchase of tickets from Germany by blocking IP addresses and bank cards from that country, a system that Eintracht fans raffled off by going to resale.

“They tried to buy up to 27,901 tickets from Germany, they tried several times and what happened is that the system overflowed and, from there, unofficial agents, external to the club, and organized groups and specialists in the resale of entries caused the control mechanisms to be insufficient”Laporta acknowledged.

Likewise, Barça recognized that “a computer error” 238 tickets were sold to Germans and it was found that a tour operator (PU Travel), which usually sells tickets to tourists, “he did bad practice”. The entity announced that it will break the contract with this company.

Laporta’s solution

To prevent a similar situation from repeating itself in the future, Laporta announced that from now on tickets will be nominative in high-risk and international matches that are played at the Camp Nou.

In this sense, the club is working so that the ticket presentation system is through mobile devices, a measure that, according to Venteo, will allow the traceability of the tickets sold to be known.

Likewise, Laporta announced that the ‘seient lliure’ (‘free seat’) system, that this course is not active, will only be available to members in this type of meeting.