Everton-Nurnberg: Worst-Case Scenario Waiting to Happen

I hope I'm wrong about this.

I hope I'm very wrong, but I'm so concerned I feel I must air my thoughts.

I normally stick to writing about matches and leave the political side of sport to others, but the stubbornness of UEFA must be commented on. 

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Let me first explain the history of the problem, and then examine how UEFA might have averted it.

Tomorrow night, Everton faces the German side FC Nurnberg in the UEFA Cup. Demand for tickets has gone through the roof.

Even the highly-inflated prices charged by the airlines have not deterred people from paying through the nose to get to southern Germany.

In line with UEFA regulations, Everton has received approximately 3,000 tickets for the match, and insisted that supporters must book their travel arrangements before attempting to obtain tickets through the club.

As the official club packages range from £400 to £650, many people have found their own routes to Nuremberg.

It has been widely suggested that around 6,000 supporters have booked flights—most paying about £250—in the hope of being eligible for tickets to the game.

Now here is the first part of the problem: Because the demand for flights is so high, most travel companies and airlines have enforced a no-transfer/no-refund policy.

Simply put, you have to book your flight before you can buy your match ticket. But if you’re not able to get a match ticket, you can’t get your money back on the flight.

Not surprisingly, tickets for the game sold out within two days. That left around 3,000 supporters without tickets and looking at a £250+ dent in their bank balances.

So what would you do with a flight you can’t get rid of—stay at home or make the trip to Germany?

The answer is so obvious that town officials in Nuremberg set aside a square in which to entertain—and control—the traveling Everton supporters.

Then, some bright spark had the idea of contacting FC Nurnberg directly to see if they could purchase tickets for the game.

FC Nurnberg doesn’t have that big of a following, and rarely fills their 46,000-seat stadium. Seizing on a fantastic business opportunity, they began to sell tickets to Evertonians, and even had the common sense to seat these supporters next to the official away section, so that the police and stewards would have an easier time with crowd control.

News that additional tickets were available spread like wildfire, and around 1,500 supporters managed to purchase extra tickets.

Cue UEFA and their inability to compromise—part two of the problem.

Upon hearing Everton would have more than the sanctioned number of supporters, UEFA decided to class the game as "High Risk."

Simply put, anyone with a British address who had bought tickets from Nurnberg FC would have their orders canceled.

My question: Why?

With most of the Everton supporters in one place, officials could have concentrated their crowd-control measures.

With a larger crowd in the stadium, the atmosphere would have been electric, and a full house would have made the match more attractive to potential sponsors.

Another question: Why was this game only classified as "High Risk" after UEFA discovered FC Nurnberg was selling extra tickets?

Surely, it should have been a "High Risk" game as soon as the fixture was organised—not two days before it was due to be played.

But the main problem is the potentially disastrous scenario created by UEFA's overzealous regulation.

With so many foreign supporters in town, ticket touting will be rife. As has already been shown by the ridiculous demand for flights, many Evertonians will pay a lot of money to see this game.

Tickets will be sold on the street for hundreds of pounds—but instead of being designated for controlled areas of the stadium, they will be scattered across the ground.

Rather than having all the Everton fans together, there will be little pockets of blue and white all over the place.

Football is a passionately supported sport, and sometimes those passions can boil over. An untimely goal or a contentious tackle could ignite the crowd's emotion—and it would take only one frustrated fan, either English or German, for trouble to start.

But with so many away fans dotted around the ground, police could have difficulty in subduing all of the potential hot spots.

Imagine how bad this situation could get.

If UEFA had worked with the two clubs, their supporters, and the town officials, this potential problem could have been avoided entirely.

If UEFA had learned from previous ticketing fiascoes—such as last season's Champions League Final in Athens—then they could have permitted FC Nurnberg to set their own ticketing policies.

If UEFA would allow itself to be flexible, then it could treat each club and each game on an individual basis, rather than tarring everyone with the same brush.

I would love nothing more than to be called an idiot after a trouble-free game. But I am worried about potential damage to the reputation that Everton has built over many years.

If I can see this problem approaching, and come up with a solution, then surely the highly-paid people at UEFA can as well—can't they?