Laporta admits that the control mechanisms against Eintracht were overwhelmed

The president of Barcelona, ​​Joan Laporta, 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 featured the massive presence of German supporters at the Camp Nou.

In a press conference held this Tuesday to assess what happened in the duel of the second European competition, the head of the entity assured that of the more than 29,000 tickets that were put up for 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 – more than 30,000 according to the club’s estimate – exceeded the forecasts of the security department that chose to let them in to avoid “tension situations that would have been extreme”.

“Everything overflowed. 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 said. .

At the appearance, Laporta was accompanied by the head of security, Lluís Venteo, and the vice president of the marketing area, Juli Guiu, who announced the attendance figures for the match and the estimate of tickets that finally ended up at the hands of the Germans .

According to Guiu, of the 29,435 tickets that the club put up for sale, it is estimated that more than 7,000 members bought them, at the usual discount, and possibly later resold them to German fans.

To these must be added the tickets acquired by “unofficial agents and resale groups”, in addition to 500 ‘vip’ tickets that also went to the hands of German fans.

Likewise, the club “works with the estimate” that some 7,000 subscribers of the 37,746 who attended the stadium sold their seats to Eintracht fans based on an eye analysis of the stands.

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 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 then on, unofficial agents, external to the club, and organized groups and ticket resale specialists caused that the control mechanisms were insufficient,” acknowledged Laporta.

Likewise, Barça acknowledged that due to “a computer error” 238 tickets were sold to Germans and detected that a tour operator (PU Travel), which usually sells tickets to tourists, “made a malpractice.” The entity announced that it will break the contract with this company.

At the press conference, which lasted an hour and a half, Laporta and the club’s head of security lamented that the massive presence of fans “exceeded” the forecasts and affirmed that in the pre-match meetings with UEFA and EL Eintracht, the German club officials said that some 30,000 fans would travel without a ticket.

“There are some minutes in which the representatives of Eintracht assured that some 30,000 Germans would arrive without a ticket and that we only had to worry about the 5,000 who would go with a ticket,” revealed Laporta, who explained that UEFA “congratulated” them on the device party security because “it could have been worse.

Precisely about the security operation, Venteo admitted that “they were lucky” that “many incidents” did not occur in the stands between fans of the two teams, since if the security agents had acted, situations of tension could have been experienced ” extreme”.

“The culture of standing up drinking contrasts with the culture of the Barça fans and that caused friction with the local fans. Where we had the fewest problems were with the 5,000 who entered,” added Venteo.

To prevent a similar situation from repeating itself in the future, Laporta announced that from now on tickets will be nominative for high-risk and international matches 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, which this course is not active, will only be available to members in this type of meeting.

Lastly, the club promised to work with the police authorities to put an end to ticket resale networks for matches played at the Camp Nou.