Liverpool have released a statement apologising to supporters who were impacted in gaining entry to Anfield for today’s game with Athletic Bilbao.
The match was due to start at 4pm but due to teething problems with the club’s new ticketing system, kick-off was delayed by 30 minutes.
Videos and images posted on social media showed significant queues outside Anfield leading up to 4pm, with plenty of empty seats inside the ground.
Liverpool have introduced Near Field Communication for stadium access this campaign, with an electronic pass downloaded into a digital wallet on a mobile phone which is scanned for entry.
And the club have now confirmed the reasons behind why supporters were forced to suffer delayed access to the ground and apologised for the inconvenience caused.
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“We apologise wholeheartedly to all fans impacted by the delayed entry into Anfield today. This was due to issues relating to access processes and matchday operations,” a statement from Liverpool read.
“As a result of these challenges, kick-off was delayed by 30 minutes in order to allow our ticketing services team to reduce the queues and get supporters inside the stadium as quickly and safely as possible.
“We understand how frustrating this has been for our supporters, who have been looking forward to getting back into Anfield.”
The Reds are back in action against Osasuna at Anfield tomorrow evening and the club have confirmed that they will work on ensuring all issues fans experienced today are fixed in time for the game.
“We will be doing a full debrief of today’s entry process to identify why the system was slower than expected and will endeavour to ensure such issues are addressed ahead of Monday night’s match against Osasuna,” the club’s statement continued.
“As part of this we will communicate any changes impacting fans, along with additional guidance, for this next friendly fixture in due course.
"We thank supporters for their patience and understanding.”
