Thanks to the 3-2 defeat at home, at the Camp Nou, Barcelona were knocked out of the UEFA Europa League Quarter-Finals. To make matters worse, they had convincingly lost the battle in the stands. The German side had fierce support from the stands, for as many as at least 30,000 out of a total of around 80,000 fans cheered for the Eagles.
"There are two irregular things that happened here, both in the tickets sold in the third tier of the stadium, which went to the Germans, and part of the season ticket holders' tickets which also went to the rival fans. The club is not to be blamed for this. We only organize the games. We are ashamed about what happened. We did not sell tickets to the Germans.
"We put the 34,440 tickets on sale to the public with several restrictions like they could not be bought with German credit cards. We put all the restrictions we could. These tickets were located in the third tier of the stadium, which was all white. The Germans bought the tickets illegally. Also, of the 37,746 season ticket holders tickets' registered at the stadium, many also ended up in the hands of German fans", explained Blaugrana's president, Joan Laporta.
How Barcelona will deal with future ticket sale to avoid repetition
"Those who know me know that I am taking responsibility and taking action, and we will take action", he added. Quickly after the words, came the doing. One of the actions that Laporta has stated is that starting with the European championships, all tickets will be nominative starting from the 2022-23 season. To get access to a stadium, one must have a ticket with their name on it, and they must also be with the ticket's owner.
It was also confirmed by the team's vice president, Elena Fort: "Barcelona have to reflect upon this and make drastic decisions. One of the possible solutions is to make the tickets nominal in the future. Maybe we have to change culturally and take decisions that have not been taken so far when it comes to accessing the stadium.”
Just two weeks ago, Barca had asked season ticket holders who could not attend matches to return the tickets to help the club in two ways - financially through the sale, and by improving the atmosphere at the stadium, as per Catalan outlet Mundo Deportivo.
How Barcelona will sanction fans who sold their tickets
In addition, there have been allegations that a number of Barcelona's shareholders, in addition to those who resold tickets, knowingly and deliberately left their seats free of charge to visiting fans, or did not come to the stands at all just to harm the club. And it's presumably only because they do not agree with Joan Laporta's politics.
It remains to see the possible sanctions that could be imposed on the Barcelona fans who did resell their tickets. However, it looks very unlikely that they will face large fines mostly due to the fact that they come in a gigantic number. The Blaugrana would risk losing at least 30,000 season ticket holders for the remainder of the season, and most probably the next one as well.
According to recent claims from Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona might be in even greater danger and could be subject to punishment from UEFA. This might be a security breach due to the overflowing crowds and the use of flares by away supporters. In order to determine this, UEFA's security coordinator will compile a report.
