Soccer

Uefa to introduce price capping for away fans in European competitions

Maximum prices set to be €70 in Champions League and €45 in Europa League

Bayern Munich fans raise a banner to complain about the cost of tickets during the Champions League last 16 second-leg match against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in London in March 2017. Photograph: Ian Kington/AFP/Getty Images

Fri Aug 30 2019 - 15:34

European football’s governing body Uefa has agreed a compromise deal with the continent’s top clubs to cap ticket prices for away fans in the Champions League and Europa League this season.

Starting from next month’s opening group-stage fixtures, away tickets will cost a maximum of €70 in the Champions League and €45 in the Europa League.

British and German fans have been complaining about the extortionate cost of some away tickets, particularly in Spain, for several years.

Last season, both Manchester United and Liverpool responded to Barcelona’s high prices – more than €100 for last season’s Champions League quarter-final at Camp Nou – by raising their own prices for visiting Barca fans and using the additional revenue to subsidise their fans’ costs in Spain.

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United also did this for Sevilla when they met in the last 16 of the Champions League in 2018.

Uefa, with the support of Bayern Munich and the Premier League clubs, has been pushing hard for a price cap for months but clubs in Spain and other southern European countries were less keen on the idea.

"Fans are the lifeblood of the game and those who follow their teams to away matches must have access to tickets at a reasonable price, bearing in mind the cost they have already had to incur for their trip," Uefa president Aleksander Ceferin said.

“By capping ticket prices, we want to make sure that away fans can still travel to games and play their part in making the atmosphere inside football stadiums so special.”

The capped prices are higher than some will have hoped for but they represent an improvement of the tit-for-tat price-gouging of recent seasons.

The first British beneficiaries of the deal, which is expected to be officially announced later on Friday, will be Liverpool fans when they visit Napoli on September 17th, with Tottenham travelling to Olympiacos and Manchester City going to Shakhtar Donetsk a day later.

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