“A football game is not an opera performance,” says the active Munich fan scene. A call for a boycott of FC Bayern’s away game against Donetsk is now having an effect. The tickets are now cheaper.
After the ticket fiasco for FC Bayern Munich’s Champions League game against Shakhtar Donetsk, tickets are now available at a significantly lower price.
For the game in the premier class on December 10 in the Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen, Bayern fans were originally supposed to pay 105 euros for a seat and 52 euros for a standing room ticket. As the German record football champions announced, the Ukrainian top club has now “redesigned” the ticket prices after consultation with FC Bayern. A standing-room ticket in the Bayern block now costs only €26, and a seat costs €45.
The Ukrainian club “adjusted the ticket prices in the guest sector for our away game to the price level permitted by ticket regulations,” wrote the Südkurve München to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). Therefore, they will now attend the game against Donetsk “with all active groups” after all.
“The conversion of the ticket prices is intended to give all fans – including those who had already canceled their ticket requests – the opportunity to submit a new request,” FC Bayern announced.
This was preceded by a wave of cancellations from Munich supporters. In the previous week, the number of ticket requests had dropped from an initial 55,000 to just 19,000. However, FC Bayern has basically no influence on the pricing of Shakhtar, which is playing its matches in Gelsenkirchen due to Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
The active fan scene of Bayern had even called for a boycott. The Bayern Ultras, however, rejected this in a statement with the headline: “Boycott the Donetsk away game!” It said: “Large parts of the active south stand will not attend the away game against Shakhtar Donetsk due to the pricing circumstances.”
The reason: “The dynamic pricing system, combined with a high base price for tickets for our game, results in a disproportionate increase in price compared to other home games of Shakhtar Donetsk in the European Cup.”
By way of comparison, while Atalanta Bergamo fans pay from €23 for a standing-room ticket, Bayern fans will have to fork out a whopping €52 for the same. It’s no different for seats: Bayern fans will have to pay €105 for the away end, while Atalanta Bergamo fans got tickets starting at €28.
On a side note: 21,636 fans came to watch Shakhtar Donetsk play against Atalanta Bergamo (0:3), and 17,420 came to watch them play Young Boys Bern (2:1) at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen.