Bayern Munich fans are set to hold a five minute protest against ticket prices for their Champions League tie with Arsenal next week.
Travelling fans will have to fork out £64 for a ticket with the total cost rising to €100 once fees and postage are added.
Despite the ever increasing money coming in from broadcasting deals English football prices are among the most expensive in the world forcing many visiting supporters into rationing the matches they attend.
The statement from the Bayern fans says: “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.”
Great move by the Bayern fans and I totally agree with every sentiment that they express. The Bundesliga is a fantastic model of how to treat fans like adults by giving them value for money and trusting them to partake in alcohol consumption should they so desire.
Not that the sexy, best league in the world(!) hoorahs will listen anyway. Watch your average edition of MOTD and see the amount of empty seats at most grounds. Just wait until that TV money disappears……..
The Celtic travelling support should adopt this approach, showing the greedy club (Kilmarnock) what the future holds with a possible full boycott. This way we at least support the Bhoys by being there.
If the other clubs want to charge us extra we should do the same on them when they visit Celtic, there is no use talking about it, our Fans and Club have to prove the point that ACTIONS speak Louder than WORDS.