Bayern Munich’s Champions League match against Ukrainian side Shakhtar Donetsk scheduled for the December is set to be hosted at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, also known as the home to Schalke 04. The conflict in Ukraine and Russia is the reason why UEFA has to hold the tie on neutral grounds, but it is not a far trip for a lot of Bayern fans to make to attend the affair.
However, there have recently been large scale boycotts for tickets to the December 10th matchup from Bayern fans due to UEFA’s seat pricing for an event that is an incredibly close away day for most Bayern supporters. The Bayern supporters group known as Südkurve München had called for a ticket boycott to the match this past weekend. Their message was clear; “Boycott Donetsk away game! Cancel your tickets! Bayern fans, don’t let yourselves be fooled and boycott the away game at Shakhtar Donetsk,” it read (per Bild).
There was a deadline for midday Monday, November 4th to have placed the ticket orders for the match, but the supporter’s group message spurred on the mass withdrawal of ticket orders from Bayern supporters due to UEFA’s pricing. For that particular match in Gelsenkirchen, they jacked up the price per ticket to 105 euros per seat, which is a steep rise from the 28 euros they charged per ticket when Donetsk took on Atalanta earlier on in the competition.
Photo by Jürgen Fromme – firo sportphoto/Getty Images
On the surface, it does seem a bit like a money grab from UEFA, which is an organization that does not really do itself any favors with its actions in trying to stray away from that sentiment, but they probably felt the number of Bayern fans in the venue would be very high due to Gelsenkirchen’s proximity to Bavaria. They might not have taken into consideration that it is a much pricier journey for fans from Bergamo, Italy a la Atalanta to get to the Veltins Arena than it would be for most Bayern fans, but Südkurve München does not have time for any of the semantics that UEFA could potentially use as an excuse.
Plain and simple, UEFA’s pricing is going to heavily impact attendance at the match for a supporter’s group that is heavily involved in socio-political, humanitarian relief, and human rights advocacy efforts for a team than cannot play in its currently-war-torn country. The optics of this for UEFA are not great, but that likely will not stop them from lining their pockets where they see fit.
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