West Ham have set ticket rules for Frankfurt clash to avoid ‘Barcelona scandal’

Barcelona crashed out of the Europa League against Eintracht Frankfurt after a humiliating 2-3 loss at the Camp Nou. While the scoreline suggests that it was a close game, the reality lies far from it.

Fortunately for Barça, a lot of attention was diverted from their performance as courtesy of a ticketing scandal. Nearly 35,000 Frankfurt fans were present at the Camp Nou in a game that hosted a crowd of little less than 80,000.

Frankfurt now face West Ham in the semi-finals of the competition, and have already instilled fear in the Londoners. The Hammers, however, are ready to act early and increase their chances as they have banned sales of tickets to Frankfurt fans, according to AS.

West Ham want to avoid another ‘Barcelona situation’, and have warned their season ticket holders that if they try to sell their tickets to travelling fans from Germany, their credentials will be taken away along with a ban from the London Stadium until 2023.

Further, the club has told them that no refund will be processed for their season tickets, and that the culprits in question will not be able to access any benefits their membership promises them.

As hard it may sound, this measure taken by West Ham can potentially help them massively in the semis. Frankfurt evidently have one of the most chaotic fanbases in Europe and would have caused David Moyes’ the same problem they imposed on Barcelona.

The first leg of this tie, scheduled at the London Stadium, will take place next week on 28th April. The return leg will go ahead on 5th May.