With official advice not to travel without a ticket, gloomy economic news and warnings about potentially violent trouble spots ringing in their ears, thousands of Manchester United supporters are staying at home to watch today’s Champions League final on big screens.
Supporters’ groups expect the numbers traveling speculatively to Rome in the hope of getting a ticket to be well down on the number that went to Barcelona to watch the 1999 final, the last comparable trip to continental Europe.
While going abroad to follow your team used to be the ultimate badge of honor among fans, supporters’ groups and academics believe the expense of watching modern soccer, combined with efforts to discourage ticketless fans from attending, have caused a cultural shift.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The Manchester United Supporters Trust has sold out 8,000 tickets for screenings at 11 venues — eight in Manchester, two in London and one in Dublin — for the match. Many others will cram into special screenings in pubs and clubs.
On top of the 20,000 guaranteed a seat, up to 10,000 ticketless fans were still expected to make the journey to Rome. Airlines have put on extra flights and the AA motoring organization has advised those driving to leave plenty of time, estimating it will take 20 hours to get from Manchester to Rome.
But with the recession also likely to be causing some fans to tighten their belts, many thousands more have opted to stay at home in the expectation of enjoying an atmosphere that will be difficult to recreate anywhere outside the Stadio Olimpico.
In an effort to avoid any repeat of the violence that has marred some recent visits by English teams to Rome, when local Ultras attacked supporters at various known flashpoints, alcohol has been banned in the city on the day of the game and there will be no big screens on which to watch the action. About 20,000 police will swamp the city center.
“You’re just not going to get the same atmosphere over there if you haven’t got a ticket to the game,” said supporters’ trust chief executive Duncan Drasdo.
He said that generations of fans who had been priced out of the game now tended to watch on big screens with friends.
“It’s not just young people. If you look at the people who live in the streets around a ground like Old Trafford, they are not the ones with tickets. They have all moved out to the more prosperous suburbs. Instead, they watch the match at the pub with their friends,” Drasdo said.
Some academics also believe that with tickets for big matches expensive and hard to come by, and the grounds of the biggest clubs dominated by season ticket holders, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with friends in pubs has come to replicate the experience of those who stood on the terraces in the 1960s and 1970s.
■STARS SET TO RETURN
AP, ROME
Barcelona’s formidable attack will be at its best with Thierry Henry and Andres Iniesta likely to return for the Champions League final against Manchester United.
Henry and Iniesta were traveling with the team to Rome yesterday, a day after taking part in their first full training session since picking up separate leg injuries earlier this month.
The puzzle is coming together for the Spanish champions in time for today’s match.
“They are two basic footballing pieces in our scheme,” Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said. “We know they’re going to play, that they’ll be 100 percent and to have them is a privilege because with them, we’re better.”
Both players have been key to the offensive juggernaut that has scored 151 goals to collect two trophies this season. A third European Cup would see it become only the fifth team to win the treble.
Iniesta’s goal against Chelsea earned the Catalans their trip to the final. The midfielder, recovering from a thigh injury, abandoned his usual reserved nature when it came to deciphering the final.
“United are the defending champions, one of the best, but they don’t scare me. I have the same respect for them as they have for us,” Iniesta said. “It’s a chance to go down in history. I’d accept winning on penalties.”
Based on their training methods, that’s something Barcelona is not exactly ready for.
“We haven’t practiced them,’’ Xavi said. “I think to do that is ridiculous because you can’t emulate the tension of a game in a training session.”
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