LAST UPDATE | 10 Mar 2020
A FOURTH CHAMPIONS League last 16 tie will be played behind closed doors as Barcelona have announced their second leg against Napoli next week will be closed to fans.
Italian authorities placed the whole country in a lockdown situation last night in a bid to slow the spread of Covid-19. Away trips for Napoli and Atalanta (against Valencia this evening) will go ahead in front of empty stadia.
The altered conditions are now common across Europe with German giants Bayern Munich announcing their clash with Chelsea will be closed to fans, as will PSG’s meeting with Dortmund in Paris tomorrow.
Barca drew the first leg in Italy 1-1, but will have to navigate the 18 March second leg in front of almost 100,000 empty seats.
This morning also brought confirmation that Manchester United’s Europa League last 16 first leg trip to Austria will take place behind closed doors at the Linzer Stadion on Thursday.
Lask were prompted to close the match to supporters as Austria has barred outdoor gatherings exceeding 500 people and indoor events of more than 100 people.
This is simply a way of holding onto the money for a few more months until the interest payment covers the losses
No way this will go ahead especially considering the over 35,000 that have tickets for the game living in the usa
@Colm Connolly: you dont know much about interest rates do ya?!
@Colm Connolly: can I invest my money at your interest rates?
@Dave Harris: all the tickets sold so far are outside of the country in package deals starting at a few thousand dollars , there is nearly 70,000,000 in sales for these packages , it’s also to wait for the government to shut it down so insurance will cover any losses also
It’ll end up “null and void” as Robb Stark would say
@Keelan O’neill: hopefully mate, if it means saving lives.
@Robb Stark: except when it’s Leinster rugby when they could play a one off game
Where are they going to stay if all the hotels are still closed?. Cancel it now. 35,000 is bigger than 5,000 the last time I checked.