Chelsea’s £58m striker Morata on headers, haircuts and THAT chant
and Germans wanted more tickets
Police were not adequately prepared despite their vast experience in hosting European football.
‘ In our view, the security concept and communication seemed inadequate and the police force too small,’ said the Bundesliga club. ‘ Due to the enormous demand for tickets, it would have been sensible, not least for security reasons, to allow more than the allocated five per cent of stadium capacity to the guest fans.
‘It was apparent that thousands of people from Cologne would seek to avoid the restrictions and get tickets in every way possible.
‘One such way would be through the help of Arsenal supporters, who passed on their tickets to the FC Cologne fans. Some as gifts, but some also for horrendous prices.’
Cologne repeatedly asked for more tickets before Thursday’s game, aware of the thousands who were planning to make the short trip to London to savour their first European tie for 25 years. Arsenal were opponents within easy reach, in a huge stadium with fans who are used to the Champions League and not nearly as interested in the Europa League as the visitors.
It generated a perfect ticket storm with huge demand from away fans, far in excess of the 3,000 seats they were allocated, and low demand from home supporters.
Many Germans bought re-sold tickets for Arsenal areas of the ground, causing the Emirates Stadium to be locked down and the kick-off delayed as impromptu security meetings were held.
The game went ahead an hour late and Arsene Wenger’s team came from behind to win 3-1. Only five arrests were made but supporters complained about the intimidating presence of Cologne fans, especially in the section of the ground designated as a family area. Lois Langton, chair of the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association, called it a ‘dangerous throwback to a bygone era’ and said some Cologne fans had behaved with ‘yobbish abandon’.
Tim Payton of the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust called on the club to get to grips with its ticket touting problem. He said: ‘I would challenge the decision not to give a bigger allocation to Cologne fans.
‘And I would challenge the readiness of the club and the police on the day. But the club clearly has an issue with touting and we will be asking Arsenal to put more resources into tackling the problem with more personnel, better screening or by working more closely with the police.’
Like other big clubs, Arsenal fear they have a significant number of touts within their membership and season-ticket holders who gain easy access to tickets to sell on the black market. Proving these offences is more difficult owing to the complexities of the laws surrounding ticket touting.
Arsenal have promised a full review into the circumstances of Thursday night and vowed to ban any members found to have sold tickets to Cologne supporters.
The club rejected accusations that they were not prepared and are satisfied with the way the security operation at the Emirates Stadium was able to defuse the situation with the help of a one-hour delay to the game.
A decision was made to allow fans into the stadium with genuine tickets even though it would inevitably mean away supporters in the home end. Arsenal estimate fewer than 10,000 Cologne fans bought tickets for the home sections of the ground and made it inside. Some with forgeries were stopped at the turnstiles and turned away. Wenger admitted there was a time when he thought the match would be postponed. ‘It looked like 90 per cent it would not take place,’ said the Arsenal boss. ‘I thought security would never take a gamble on creating problems. To cancel the game could be worse outside the stadium. We are completely open to an enquiry but on our side I think we worked very hard to organise the game well.’
Arsenal’s captain Per Mertesacker said it had been difficult to handle the delay but enjoyed the atmosphere. ‘In a way, it was quite fun to play in front of two crowds battling each other,’ said Mertesacker. ‘It felt good to be part of that, especially when we were 1-0 down and trying to get back into the game for the fans.
‘I don’t know what happened outside. I just wanted to make sure my family was OK. So mixed feelings, but in the end we were happy to have played and finished the game.’