Bayern Munich supporters’ group calls for protest at £64 Arsenal tickets

A Bayern Munich supporters’ group is calling on fans to boycott the first five minutes of next week’s Champions League meeting with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in protest at what it calls “excessive” ticket prices, according to The Guardian.

FC Bayern Worldwide has organised the protest in collaboration with several other supporters’ groups after Bayern fans were charged a minimum of £64 to attend the match in London on 20 October. According to a post on the group’s Facebook account, with fees and postage included, that means the majority will have to pay more than €100 (£74).

The statement said: “This kind of a price structure makes a stadium visit impossible for younger and socially disadvantaged fans. It destroys fan culture, which is the basis of football. In England, this development has already taken place.

“We want to protest at the price structure and at the same time changes in the stadia. We want to remind clubs and associations of their social responsibility and warn them of the effects, which we will all feel, both as fans and club officials. We express our support for campaigns like ‘20’s Plenty’ from England and ‘Kein Zwanni’ [No €20] in Germany. Especially the developments in English football should be a sobering example.” The statement adds: “The first five minutes of the game in London will be, what future football will look like if this madness continues. Empty seats in the stands and no singing or emotion in the stands. In the following 85 minutes we want to show the alternative and show how fundamentally important a lively fan-culture is for football.”

Last month, fans from most Football League clubs took part in the “Twenty’s Plenty” protest – the latest stage in a campaign organised by the Football Supporters’ Federation which is designed to persuade clubs to take the modest step of capping away prices at £20.

A recent study found the average price of a ticket in England’s top flight is £54, while the cost of a ticket in Germany is just £23.

/By AzerTac/