Jurgen Klopp has moved to defend UEFA’s decision to host the final in Basel, claiming it is easy to find fault with the benefit of hindsight.
“Look, how easy is our position sitting here saying ‘why should they play in Basel’? Watch the last few Europa League finals and look who played against who and then tell me if you think they should have played in an 80,000-people stadium. If you can’t fill it you don’t have to do it,” he said.
“This is the first year where the Cup winner can go to the Champions League. That is not our reason, not for one second, we want to go to the final, we want to win the cup, but it’s true.
“Maybe this tournament will change in the next years, we will see.”
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Lots of Reds were left disappointed this morning, as the club’s ticket ballot left thousands without tickets. It is thought we’ve been given around 10,000 tickets for the event, but a significant number of ticketless fans will travel to Switzerland regardless – either with the hope of getting one of a tout or just soaking up the atmosphere in the local bars.
“It’s quite easy afterwards to say it was the wrong decision but I would not say this. I’m pretty sure they thought about it before and they wanted to create a good atmosphere for the final of a sold-out stadium. Now they have a sold-out stadium, 100%, that’s good!” continued our boss.
“Again for example if they get an 80,000 stadium, then we get 30,000 tickets or whatever and we (still) can’t bring all the people in. That’s how it is.
“I think the most important thing is that we can play there and we can win the cup and the whole Liverpool family is involved. No game that we played in the last 100 and something years could all Liverpool fans be in the stadium.
“Don’t let us make 1% negativity around this game because it’s a wonderful opportunity for all of us.” (via Echo)