Ticket battle raging on the Internet
By John Hadoulis
A week before Liverpool and AC Milan meet in the Champions League final in Athens on May 23 to decide continental supremacy, a battle is already raging on the Internet among fans desperate for tickets to the game.
And despite warnings from Europe's governing body UEFA for football fans to be wary of sellers charging exorbitant fees and failing to deliver, the demand has already increased ticket prices tenfold.
Apart from the 17 000 tickets given to each of the clubs, 20 000 tickets were allocated to the "UEFA family" - UEFA and national federation officials, sponsors and guests - and a further 9000 went into a ballot that ended in February.
The asking price for a pair of seats to the final at the Olympic Stadium has skyrocketed from an official price of $108-270 dollars between $1 125- 2 600 with even online sellers across the Atlantic joining in the bonanza.
"Yes, I know that the price is a bit crazy, but that was the cheapest I could find at the time and I was very excited to go as I'm a huge Liverpool fan," wrote US-based eBay seller "ranndino", who is asking over $2 600 for his ticket.
"Now that I can't go I'd like to simply recoup my money...I'm not some money hungry shark. I simply bought the ticket from an Internet resale site and that was the price I paid for it."
UEFA spokesperson William Gaillard told the Liverpool Echo last week: "If we built a stadium with a million seats, the match would still sell out and supporters would not be able to see the pitch".
"It's impossible more will be released in the coming weeks - 17 000 (for each club) is the final figure."
One seller from Salonika, northern Greece, paid $555 for two prime seats and now stands to make
$2 600 for the pair.
Another Greek seller, arisexpress, tries to entice potential buyers a bonus gift of six bottles of ouzo, metro tickets and guides to Athens.
But not all ticket holders are making money this year. French seller Michael, 25, has had trouble unloading two 80-euro tickets he bought for
2 000-euros.
The same two teams fought out the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul when Liverpool famously came back from 0-3 down at half-time to defeat the Italians on penalties.
Around 50 000 football fans are expected to travel to Athens for the final, but only about 35 000 of them will have tickets, Greek police said.
Coupled with the fact that the busy tourist season has already started in Athens and local hotels are booked to capacity, this raises the problem of around 15 000 fans milling around the capital without access to the stadium.
The public order ministry on Tuesday said efforts were underway to minimise the movement of English fans, who frequently cause trouble when abroad.
"Efforts are being made with the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels to place television sets in areas where fans will be staying to facilitate them, and to avoid (fan) movement," the public order ministry said in a statement.
The chief of Greek police on Tuesday briefed British ambassador Simon Gass on preparations for the game, the ministry said.
Fans with tickets will be escorted by police directly to the Olympic Stadium, while the remainder will be permitted to circulate freely around Athens but will have their movements shadowed by riot police, a police source said after an emergency meeting in April between the public order ministry and Athens municipal officials.
Around 15 000 police officers will be mobilised for the event, in an operation rarely seen since Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics. - Sapa-AFP
(1 USD = 6.95776 ZAR)