Liverpool Legend Slams UEFA

It may be the biggest football – sorry, soccer – stadium in Switzerland , but it is still too small to host a May 18 final between Liverpool FC and FC Sevilla, the former pro concluded in his column on liverpoolecho.co.uk. “Joggeli,” as the stadium is referred to by locals, holds 36,000 people in UEFA matches, which means that “only 10,000 tickets or so have been made available” for Liverpool’s fans, Aldrige writes.

He thinks people will make the journey to Switzerland even without a ticket. “I can definitely see more than the 10,000 turning up. They won’t be there to cause trouble, just to enjoy the day, but UEFA’s decision has made it more of an issue than it should have been.” Liverpool’s coach Jürgen Klopp – probably caught by the euphoria of having made the finals – had first encouraged Liverpool fans to travel to Basel regardless of having a ticket, but withdrew the invitation later.

He said at a recent press conference that nobody could have foreseen that two crowd magnets like Liverpool and Sevilla would play the final in 2016. “Watch the last few Europa League finals and look who played against who and then tell me if you think they should have played in an 80,000-people stadium. If you can’t fill it you don’t have to do it,” he said.