Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he made a mistake in inviting ticketless Liverpool fans to Basel for this month’s Europa League final against Sevilla.
As Sky Sports reports, Klopp endorsed all Reds supporters travelling to Switzerland despite us having only been allocated a measly 10,236 tickets.
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But that has created safety fears because hotels in the city are fully booked, with Swiss police appealing to fans who cannot get a ticket to stay at home.
Klopp has acknowledged that his enthusiasm and passion might have got the better of him on this occasion and has backtracked on the invitation.
Now he is pleading those fans who cannot get tickets for the spectacle to listen to this important message: stay at home and watch the game with friends.
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Klopp is quoted by Sky Sports as saying: “I heard today was my 49th game as Liverpool manager, which means I have had 5,637 press conferences and I’ve said a lot of things in these press conferences.
“Most of them are easy to forget but last time I spoke about Basel I spoke like a supporter and I invited all Liverpool fans to Basel.
“That was not too smart to be honest. Basel is a nice city but it is not ready for us and it was my mistake. I have to take back the invitation to Basel.
“Please only people with tickets go there because everything else will be chaos and we don’t want this, we have to concentrate on football.
“It is wonderful to be in the stadium but if you cannot be there then stay at home or come to Liverpool and watch the game together with friends and let’s have a party after this.
“It is really, really, really necessary that you now listen – most of the time you can ignore what I say but now it is important. We have to send the team plus 10,000 fans and the rest all over the world can enjoy the game with best friends and family.”
We echo Klopp’s sentiments. This should be a wonderful occasion for all of us who love Liverpool, and do not want anything to distract from the football.
But we also suggest to UEFA that they find bigger venues and give away less seats to their corporate sponsors in future, to allow more fans to attend.
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