The scenes in Barcelona before yesterday’s Europa League game between the Spanish side and Frankfurt were, impressionante, as thousands of the German fans marched through the streets ahead of the game in a vast column.
But what happened in the stadium was even more incredible. It turned out that the 30,000 supporters weren’t just there to have a beer and a sing song – they had tickets to the game.
By the time the game kicked off, the Camp Nou was half full of Frankfurt fans, and their true number became evident after full time when the Cules cleared out, leaving a sea of away fans around every stand of the stadium.
Today has seen a series of quotes from senior figures at Barcelona, each more embarrassed than the laugh. Sid Lowe’s piece for ESPN had them all:
“It was like a final, where it’s half the stadium each,” “Obviously it didn’t help. We were expecting 70,000 or 80,000 cules.” said manager Xavi.
“I don’t know if it was a home game,” added Jordi Cruyff, the technical secretary.
“I thought we were playing at home,” Eintracht coach Oliver Glasner said, beaming after a historic 3-2 win that saw his side into the semi finals.
“We can’t allow [this],” Barcelona president Joan Laporta said. “We’re getting information from the security and ticketing departments. We will take measures.”
They’re going to have to. For one of Europe’s biggest and most historic clubs this was an utter humiliation, with the greed of their fans evidently greater than their love of their club (or at least their respect for thee Europa League) as they sold on their tickets to Frankfurt fans.
