UEFA defends final ticket policy

Uefa has defended its ticket policy for the Champions League final in Moscow on 21 May after putting 10,500 on public sale via its own website.

 

Last year's final in Athens was marred by trouble involving Liverpool fans who arrived without tickets for the clash with Italians AC Milan.

Uefa will allocate 21,000 tickets to each club competing in May's final.

"Seventy-five per cent will go to fans. Last year it was only 65%," spokesman William Gaillard told the BBC.

"I don't there is any other competition in the world that guarantees that many tickets to fans, especially when you compare it to the World Cup or competitions in the past.

"Not all can go just to the two clubs. There should be tickets for fans all over Europe as well as the local fans in Moscow, who would like to see such a prestigious game."

Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium will have a capacity of just under 70,00 for the final.

Gaillard said: "Liverpool fans had problems last year, we know that, but we cannot manage tickets that are given to the clubs involved in the final.

"Once we give tickets to clubs, they have to distribute them. We cannot go into cities and start distributing them ourselves.

"We have now decided to have stadia with capacities of over 75,000, although there will be some exceptions because not all countries have stadia of that size. However, we know this solves only a small part of this issue because even if we had a stadium of 150,000 that would not cater for all fans."

Gaillard expects security in Moscow to be better because the stadium is a purpose-built football venue.

He added: "The stadium in Athens last year was an Olympic stadium, therefore the arrangements were for an athletics crowd. This year there will be electronic turnstiles."

Gaillard also confirmed Uefa will continue its fight against touts getting hold of tickets before showpiece games.

"In any system you will unfortunately find ticket touts. It is a tough battle - we are fighting this every year and we have the law on our side," he said.

"Ticket touting is not only illegal commercially, it has an effect on security arrangements in place to avoid incidents inside the stadium."

Mascherano signs

Liverpool deal

Javier Mascherano has signed a four-year contract with Liverpool.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 23-year-old, whose contract was owned by the Media Sports Investments consortium, moved to Anfield on loan from West Ham just over a year ago.

The Argentine midfielder was able to sign for Liverpool outside the transfer window because he does not belong to another club.

"I am very, very happy and now I can concentrate just on playing football," Mascherano told Liverpoolfc.tv.

"I said all along that I wanted to stay at Liverpool and now that I have signed I can say this is the best and the biggest moment in my career so far.

"From the first day I arrived at Liverpool the feeling was good and I knew this was where I wanted to play my football.

It's good news for me and my family that everything is sorted and I know where my future is going to be. I just want to do my best for the fans and the people of the club.

"I am at a top side and I know I can win titles here. That's the big thing for me. I want to be at a club where we can win trophies and have success."