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Daily Record
Daily Record
Sport
Liam Bryce

Aleksander Ceferin responds amid Rangers ticket anger as UEFA chief claims 'the system works'

European football chief Aleksander Ceferin has defended UEFA 's ticketing policy amid anger over Rangers' Europa League Final allocation.

The Ibrox club received just 9,500 tickets (down from 10,000) for their showdown with Eintracht Frankfurt at the 43,000-capacity Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium on May 18.

Prices started from £40 and UEFA provided 4000 of those for free with the German side receiving the same allocation.

But that still leaves a substantial number of tickets going elsewhere, including to corporate sponsors and VIPs.

Supporters set to miss out were dealt a further kick in the teeth this week with tickets appearing on resale websites for as much as £10,000.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp, whose team will play Real Madrid in the Champions League Final, called out UEFA's approach earlier this week and that's prompted president Ceferin to respond.

He said: "I explained the same thing to one of the coaches of the two (Champions League finalist) teams a couple of days ago and I can do it here. I explained it to him a bit more and took much more time because I went through every single number.

"From the revenues from the finals, UEFA gets 6.5 per cent and 93.5 per cent goes to the clubs. From the other matches 100 per cent of the revenues goes to the clubs.

"Fans of both teams get 20,000 tickets each. If sponsors that pay 100 or more million euros sponsorship - of which 93.5 per cent goes to the same clubs - get some tickets, it's part of a contractual obligation that we have.

"UEFA doesn't get more tickets than the others. Some tickets go to the market, some tickets go to the fans and some go to the partners. It's not UEFA. I'm not giving tickets for free to my friends or selling to my friends.

"It's the system that works, and clubs couldn't function differently.

"For us, not much will change if all the tickets will be 10 euros, but it will change a lot for the clubs. A lot."

Fans have also been left frustrated by the decision to stage the Europa League Final at Sevilla's home ground given its relatively modest capacity.

Travelling supporters from both Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt are expected to exceed 100,000 and it's prompted officials to consider opening the city's other stadium, Estadio La Cartuja, to allow those without match tickets to watch the game.

The Champions League Final, by contrasted, is being staged at the Stade de France, which can host 81,000 fans.

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