What price "loyalty?" This year, £42.
If there was a prize for the most bizarre ticket-selling arrangements of the season, then Liverpool would win hands-down for the way the club are selling tickets for the forthcoming Champions League tie at Atletico Madrid.
Our end was barely one-third full in Porto for the last season's opening Champions League group game despite being officially "sold out." It's obvious what had happened here - many fans took a £36 hit to guarantee themselves future away tickets, and to combat this the club introduced a system where, from Besiktas onwards, supporters would have to provide proof of travel to qualify for subsequent games.
Fast forward a year to Marseille, and the club's selling arrangements for the match at the Velodrome clearly stated the following:
"It is IMPORTANT for supporters travelling to Marseille to retain their travel documents which will provide proof of travel, eg the original stub from the flight boarding pass(es) or original documentation from other means of travel, as these will be requested to be attached with the application forms for any future away matches within the UEFA competitions."
This clearly didn't deter supporters from "taking a chance" on buying another ticket - this time at £42 a go - for a match they wouldn't attend as, despite our end not being as empty as it was at the Dragao last September, it was nowhere near full despite another "sell-out." With Atletico Madrid on the horizon - our first ever competitive game in Madrid, Fernando Torres' return to his former club and a reunion with Luis Garcia - many fans understandably don't want to miss out, and quite rightly the club are giving first dibs on tickets for the tie at the Vicente Calderon to anyone who bought a Marseille ticket and can prove they went.
However, once this sale ends, tickets will then be allocated to supporters who bought a Marseille ticket but can't provide proof of travel - you couldn't make it up!! What's the point in making people provide proof of travel if you can just buy a ticket, not go then still be guaranteed a ticket for the next game? I've no doubt that many fans bought a Marseille ticket because they thought they'd have no chance of getting an Atletico ticket without it, a situation that could potentially be avoided if the club rigorously enforced its own "proof of travel" policy! I'm also in little doubt that some of the unused Marseille tickets will be in the hands of touts who will make their £42 back with interest such will be the demand for Atletico tickets.
What about the fans who went to away games last season and didn't go to Marseille? Surely they should be next in line for an Atletico ticket? Yet as things stand, season ticket holders who purchased 4 tickets last season and fancard holders who purchased 6 will have to wait until all those who bought a Marseille ticket - irrespective of whether they actually went - have had their turn. Potentially you could have somebody who went to all six away games last season missing out on one of our most anticipated European ties of recent years, while someone who has never been to a European away game bags a ticket for Madrid by virtue of buying a ticket for a match they didn't actually attend! There's so much wrong with this system it's untrue - how about the fact that the club has contradicted the very selling details that were announced for the Marseille game for starters?
Clearly the club must come up with a better system for European away ticket distribution, and people on far better money than I earn are paid to make such decisions. The "proof of travel" system is good in principal but obviously open to abuse. Maybe we should go down the road allegedly adopted by the Mancs, who I'm told make a certain proportion of fans attending a European away tie collect their tickets from the city they're playing in. If you don't collect the ticket, you don't get the credit for going, simple as. Surely that would make people think twice about paying £36 or £42 for a ticket for a game they have no plans to attend? But by openly allowing people who can't prove they travelled to Marseille to buy an Atletico away ticket, and even worse announcing such a thing openly in the official selling details, the ticket office are giving carte-blanche to and actively encouraging credit-hunters. The Marseille selling details stated it was "important" for fans to retain their travel documents from their trip to France - not that important, obviously!
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Shocking. It is the board that decide ticket allocations according to the ticket office. No wonder they sold us down the river to the Americans when they have the combined intelligence and logic of a wet blanket. So we return to everyone applying for all european away matches. I guess this means PSV away is going to be sold out.
Scandalous!
Eh - I'm sorry but your kicking off because the club would like to reward people who go to the away CL matches with first dibs on the next round - some people (I know I'm bad for it) wouldnt remember to hold onto their travel proof so go into the next pot...
You havent really provided a decent solution to the problem have you?/
I think you should be kicking off at so called 'fans' who would book tickets but done go - I'm pretty sure they could put them up for free somewhere and people would take the chance to go??
Or do you have a better idea?
Loseit - I've got no personal agenda for writing this article as I went to Marseille so am guaranteed an Atletico ticket. I've tried to answer your points below as best as possible.
"I'm sorry but your kicking off because the club would like to reward people who go to the away CL matches with first dibs on the next round."
No I'm not!! I've got no problem with people who proved they went to the previous game getting priority for the next game. What I have got a problem with is people who bought the ticket but didn't go to Marseille - and had no intention of going - also getting priority.
"I think you should be kicking off at so called 'fans' who would book tickets but done go"
I wouldn't roundly castigate those who did so as we all know how difficult it is to get tickets, and people will do whatever they feel necessary to obtain tickets - in this case, I firmly believe many people thought their best/only chance of getting an Atletico ticket was buying a Marseille ticket and willing taking a £42 loss. The club introduced a system last season where you had to provide proof of travel to get credit for going to a Euro away - surely it's theirs responsibility to enforce this? People probably bought Marseille away tickets with no intention of going because they thought the club wouldn't rigorously enforce its proof of travel policy, and they've been proved right.
"some people (I know I'm bad for it) wouldnt remember to hold onto their travel proof so go into the next pot..."
I'm sorry but if supporters are forewarned to keep their proof of travel, they won't forget to! Before fancards were introduced and you had to produce ticket stubs from certain games to get a Man Utd or Everton ticket, how many people do you think lost the relevant ticket stubs?
"You havent really provided a decent solution to the problem have you?"
I've mentioned the system United adopt where tickets have to be picked up from the city they're playing in. The system LFC brought in from Besiktas onwards, although open to abuse, was at least a step in the right direction. However, the Atletico selling details are, in my opinion, a massive step backwards.