Champions League final: Liverpool and Tottenham fans offered £5k tickets

Desperate football fans are being offered tickets to the Champions League final for up to €6,000 (£5,300), around 100 times the face value.

Tottenham and Liverpool supporters have been arriving in Madrid, many without tickets, for Saturday night’s match – the biggest game in European football.

Some have been quoted up to €6,000 for tickets with a face value of around €70 (£62).

Mark Roy, a Liverpool fan living in Abu Dhabi, said: “I’ve just gotta be here – any Liverpool fan, a Champions League final, just has to be here.”

He wore a T-shirt making it clear he wanted a ticket and said he was looking to spend about €2,500 (£2,200), but knew it may not be enough.

“Even on the street last night they were €6,000 on average and I’ve said no to that,” Mr Roy, 49, said. “I’m aware of the counterfeits. I’ve done my research, 100%, I’m not spending €2,500 on something that might be fake.”

Preventing fans from being stung by forgers is one of the tasks of the extra 1,300 Spanish tourism police drafted in to the city ahead of what has been declared a “high risk” match.

Thousands of Spurs and Liverpool fans appear to have been mixing well, many gathering through the day in Plaza Mayor, one of the city’s main squares.

Sky’s Martha Kelner, in Madrid, said “there really was a sense of excitement, but also of camaraderie between Liverpool and Tottenham fans, dancing together and chanting together in the square and the surrounding streets”.

“The ticket allocation is 16,000 to each club,” she added. “But you do get a sense that many thousands more have travelled over here.”

One of them is Spurs season ticket holder Mick Ozkor, 46, from Enfield in north London, who has come with his father and two sons and they have tickets to the game.

He admitted he was “quite excited, very nervous” ahead of what might be a “once in a lifetime” match but complained: “I think what they could have done is given the supporters more. It’s a shame that not everyone can attend.”

A Reds supporter who gave his name as John said he was hoping for “a bit of luck” after arriving in Madrid without a ticket.

The 25-year-old told the Press Association he was “looking to spend about €2,000 (£1,770)… We’ve seen online they are around €5,000 (£4,425) each, so less than halfway there”.

Matt Howley, who has travelled to the Spanish capital from Philadelphia without a ticket, said he would like to pay no more than $1,000 (£792).

As kick-off approaches, stories of epic treks to get to Madrid have begun to emerge, with one Liverpool fan deciding to buy a £40 car and drive non-stop to the city, reasoning it would be cheaper than paying inflated flight and hotel prices.

YouTube travel vlogger Simon Wilson, known for sneaking into big events, travelled with two other Reds and a Tottenham supporter in an L-Reg Skoda and reportedly arrived late on Friday.

“It took us two and a half days,” he said.

“We even slept in the car one night which was a bit chilly. We also lost a pipe from the car in Dover so had to fix that. But it got us here in one piece so for £40 you can’t complain.”

Another Liverpool fan, Russell Helsby, told The Guardian that he, his brother Thomas and son Russell “drove for 24 hours solid” to get to Madrid.

More than 4,700 security personnel from several security areas will be involved in the policing operation in total.

Labour supporters among the travelling fans have made their presence felt, re-christening a square named after Margaret Thatcher “Jeremy Corbyn Square”.

Officers have already detained six people and seized 2,000 fake Champions League products that were going to be sold in Madrid ahead of the game.

Huge screens, stages and pop-up bars have also been erected in plazas across the city, but, bizarrely, they will not show the match live, meaning many supporters will probably cram into the city’s packed-out bars.

Spanish police said they arrested four Britons for violence on Friday evening. No further details were made available.

(c) Sky News 2019: Champions League final: Liverpool and Tottenham fans offered £5k tickets