Football governing body UEFA have found another way of infuriating Liverpool fans this afternoon. The hosting of the Europa League final for the absurdly small venue of St Jakob Park in Basel (capacity: 35,000) means that Liverpool's ticket allocation is a paltry 10,000. In the aftermath of victory over Villareal last week, Jurgen Klopp exuberantly invited thousands of ticketless Liverpool fans to Basel for a party nonetheless, only to be forced to row back on those comments following a word in Liverpool's ear by UEFA.
Demand among Liverpool fans was bound to be high owing to the broad supporter base and the fact it is the club's first European final in nine years. The thirst for tickets among Sevilla fans, however, was likely to be lower, owing to the fact that this is Sevilla's third consecutive Europa League final along with their facing Barcelona in the Copa Del Rey final this month also. This has proved to be true, as Sevilla have failed to fill their allocation: selling just 7,000 of their allocated 9,000.
Liverpool fans have been given 1,600 of the leftover, but not the extra 400: as UEFA have confirmed that these seats are to be left empty for segregation purposes.
As a further blow to Liverpool fans, there will likely be seats left empty thanks to the absurd actions of uber-evil former owners George Gillet and Tom Hicks:
In 2007, 2000 shareholders received “lifetime priority ticket purchasing rights for home cup matches, cup finals” from Hicks & Gillett.
— Chris Bascombe (@_ChrisBascombe) May 6, 2016
It means even if an ex-shareholder has missed every game since 2007 they are entitled to cup final tickets. Until 2107.
— Chris Bascombe (@_ChrisBascombe) May 6, 2016
