Posted on 14th February 2022
European football’s governing body say they will begin refunding Liverpool fans who were caught up in the chaotic and unsafe scenes outside the Stade de France before the Champions League final last May.
UEFA announces thousands of free tickets for European finals
UEFA announced today that supporters of teams competing in the Champions League and Europa League final will be offered a substantial number of free tickets as a gesture of thanks for their support of European football during the COVID-19 pandemic.
10,000 free tickets will be supplied for the Champions League final, with competing clubs receiving 5,000 each. Likewise in the Europa League, each competing finalist with receive 4,000 tickets. In the women’s Conference League and Champions League, 3,000 tickets will be given free to each finalist club.
UEFA says these tickets cannot be given to sponsors, partners or club officials and will likely be given out via the clubs’ loyalty points system.
Prices of category 4 (€70) and category 3 (€180) tickets for the next three UEFA Champions League finals in 2022, 2023 and 2024 will also be frozen, keeping in line with the prices in place since 2020. UEFA says it will bear all costs related to this one-off initiative and it will not impact the financial distribution to clubs.
UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin said: “Football fans are the lifeblood of the game and we thought it would be a nice way to recognise the difficulties they have experienced over the last two years and how they nevertheless still managed to support their teams and live their passion even when away from the stadiums.
“Fans are playing an integral part in the development of football, and we must ensure that they can attend historical moments for their cherished teams at affordable prices.”
Football Supporters Europe, the umbrella organisation representing football fans across the continent, welcomed the gesture from UEFA.
“FSE welcomes UEFA’s decision to provide a number of free tickets to club competitions finalists,” they said. “The same goes for its decision to freeze category 3 and 4 prices for finals until 2024, extending a policy that has been in place since 2013.
“The pandemic has shown, once again, that football is nothing without fans.
“Fans have shown incredible loyalty throughout the crisis, so it is only right that stakeholders who benefited recognise and reward it.
“As we have always pointed out, fans do not have an unlimited amount of money to spend on football. We are therefore pleased that, with this positive gesture, UEFA has acknowledged the fact that the continual inflation of ticket prices is excluding more and more people from watching the game.
“We have also received reassurances from UEFA that the free tickets will be distributed to fans through the finalists’ allocations.”
