It was one of the most surprising sights in recent memory for an important European cup match. Over 30,000 Eintracht Frankfurt supporters showed up in place of Barcelona fans at the Camp Nou for their decisive Europa League clash which saw the modest German club eliminate Barcelona.
On Monday evening Barcelona returned to the Camp Nou in LaLiga action and once again found that fans were protesting what took place against Eintracht Frankfurt. In their home match against Cadiz, around 100 fans were screaming outside the stadium for President Joan Laporta to resign his position after the ticketing fiasco.
It was an overall dark evening for Barcelona who were shocked by Cadiz at home falling 1-0 and are now in a three-way tie for second with Sevilla and Atlético Madrid. On Tuesday Joan Laporta placed the blame for what happened on a group of supporters.
Joan Laporta blames supporters for Eintracht Frankfurt ticket blunder
Eintracht Frankfurt players celebrate at the end of the UEFA Europa League quarter Final Second Leg football match between FC Barcelona and Eintracht Frankfurt (Photo by Adria Puig/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Speaking in a news conference the Barcelona president was quick to remove the club from all wrongdoing, blaming tour companies, the ticket operator, and even supporters for selling their tickets.
“We didn’t sell tickets to German fans beyond the 5,000 away tickets. Sales from Germany weren’t allowed and there were many people trying to buy tickets from there. The system of control worked up to a point, but some organized groups were able to breach the mechanisms in place.”
Laporta continued, “We inherited the system from the previous board. We thought it could work but we have seen that for special games it doesn’t… Tickets will now be non-transferrable for non-domestic matches and high-risk games. We are working on other measures so that it does not happen again.”
In a shock move, given the political nature of the statement, Laporta blamed club members for the black-market sale of the tickets, “A group of members misused their season tickets, which they ceded to German fans… It is sad because we love this club, and it is hard to imagine season ticket holders giving their tickets to rival fans. But this happened and it will be subject to analysis.”
“There are around 7,000 members that purchased tickets with the discount code and [those tickets] ended up in German hands. We don’t want it to become a witch hunt, but there is a lot of disappointment and will look into possibly taking action. We have also detected malpractice from a tour operator, whose contract with the club has now been terminated.”
