The Camp Nou was German, the shame of Laporta

laporta looked amazed, next to Enric Masip, his most trusted advisor, and Rafa Yuste, the club’s sports vice president, the unusual image. Thousands of white shirts flooded the culé temple in a scene never seen before. Nor in any other great European stadium, enjoying, moreover, having kicked Barça out of Europe. Neither triumphed in the Champions League nor in the Europa League.

Barça played at home theoretically, but in reality, it was as if they were still in Frankfurt a week ago. How many Germans were there? The club did not give any figure. How did those more than 20,000 locations at the hands of rival fans? The board of Laporta did not inform either. Who sold them? No official comment either. Were they all from partners who, taking advantage of the Easter holidays, the match was played on Holy Thursday, resold them? Or perhaps they ended up in Germany via the tour operator channel?

Too many unanswered questions because the Camp Nou not only experienced an unprecedented situation with the culés subscribers (the official entrance was 79,468 spectators) feeling like strangers in their own home, but also because the safety of those fans who were surrounded in many sections of the stadium by thousands of Germans.

As soon as the first leg (1-1) ended, Xavi asked that “Camp Nou become a pressure cooker” to reach the semifinals of the Europa League. What the coach could never imagine is that this pot would finally be German, damaging, and in a notable way, his players because they came in surprised in an environment they did not imagine.

“It has been a calculation and planning error that there have been so many German fans. It seemed like a final. From the locker room we want know what has happened“, Xavi claimed without quoting Laporta directly, but demanding explanations before a scenario that altered the game.

“It’s disappointing, but it’s not an excuse. It hasn’t helped, it could have affected us. We expected 70,000 or 80,000 Catalan fans, but there were a lot of German people. It was our miscalculation,” said the coach, who asked for just the opposite . More culés than ever.

And there were fewer, to the point that the Animation Stand abandoned its position at the northern goal of the Camp Nou in the first 10 minutes of the second half as a gesture of protest against the thousands of Germans who dominated the stadium.

laporta, after observing, already around midnight, how the Camp Nou had become a replica of the Frankfurt Stadium, appeared before the cameras of Barça TV. “I felt embarrassed with what I saw in the stands, I apologize, it was very serious,” said the president, after indicating that the club “was processing all the information & rdquor; and stress that he would give “explanations”.

“What has happened is not usual & rdquor ;; assured the leader. It had never happened before at the Camp Nou and it is enough to see that there were only 3,000 German fans in the stands of Benito Villamarín to attend Betis-Eintracht. “It shouldn’t have happened, we have andstudied the reasons and we will take measures“added the president.

“We have information about what has happened,” he said later without explaining what he meant. “What we cannot avoid are certain situations, but they have been allowed for many years and from now on we will have to be more strict,” he said, indicating that “let me not specify because we are collecting information with the ticketing and security departments. Everything points to that there have been some undesirable situations“.

🗣️ @joanlaportafcb: “We are going to take measures so that the situation experienced at the Camp Nou doesn’t happen again” pic.twitter.com/wGMceiFnuH

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) April 14, 2022

He did not, however, give any details of the causes that caused that German invasion. “Playing at home this can’t happen”, Xavi complained uneasily, unable to understand how it had been possible to get to that Camp Nou more German than ever, exceeding, and by far, the 5% of the capacity allowed by UEFA in the European matches.

There are also a total of 26,238 Barça subscribers, 8,000 more than last season, who requested a one-year leave of absence from their seat at the Camp Nou at the start of the 21-22 season.

Laporta, meanwhile, announced the opening of an internal investigation to determine the causes of this German invasion. “As a Barcelona fan I feel ashamed of what I have seen,” said the president. But he did not want to just stay in the words but went further. “We will take action. It will never happen again,” he exclaimed energetically.

Already during the game, and given the size of that immense white spot that dominated the Camp Nou stands, Enric Masip wrote a message on his personal Twitter account.

“Everyone has the right to sell their cards, but reality makes seeing a Camp Nou with so many rival fans very, very sad,” the president’s advisor complained, without noticing that it is forbidden to sell the card , in addition to forgetting that the club itself, and through a long official statement, asked on April 8 “subscribers who cannot come to the Camp Nou in a game during this final stretch of the season, to give up their seat for the benefit of the club, renouncing an economic consideration”.

Tothom is in his right to sell his cards, but the reality is that he will see a Camp Nou with so many fans of the rival, it is very, very sad….

– Enric Masip (@enricmasip5) April 14, 2022

The directive has not specified either how many subscribers took advantage of this new formula on the occasion of the duel with Eintracht. Nor has it revealed the origin of the seats that ended up in the hands of German fans, while a large sector of culés partners decided not to go to a decisive clash for the future of Xavi’s Barça, thus portraying the transverse failure that was experienced on an unreal and chaotic Holy Thursday night.

Nit sad per caure eliminats i nit per reflect on which s’ha viscut to the Camp Nou. We believe it is essential that the Club doni explanations als socis i sòcies

— Victor Font (@victor_font) April 14, 2022

Failure was that the Camp Nou was the German home, failure of the management of the board of laporta because it allowed thousands and thousands of Eintracht supporters to feel as if they were in Frankfurt and it also failed for the Eintracht team Xaviwhich was overwhelmed in the first leg and in the second leg, wasting the closest and most accessible route to win a title, so Barça is headed for a three-year drought only interrupted by the Copa del Rey won by Barça in koeman.